


Chasing God

by Vain



Category: Digimon Adventure Zero Two | Digimon Adventure 02
Genre: M/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2002-04-20
Updated: 2002-04-20
Packaged: 2017-11-10 19:32:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 5
Words: 21,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/469869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vain/pseuds/Vain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Winner of Nemesi's DaiKen contest; Daisuke breaks the Kaiser.  . . . Sorta.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The One Who Broke You

**Author's Note:**

> **Chasing God**  
>  By: Vain  
> 3.22.2002 ~ 4.20.2002
> 
> **\- = = = = O = = = = -**
> 
> This story is for Nemesi-san’s KaiSuke / KenSuke contest and is a replacement fic for “Metanoia.”
> 
> I do not own Daisuke, Ken, Stingmon, Flamedramon, or Digimon. The Walt Disney Corporation–the Dark God of Animation–now holds claim to them. Moreover, I am not making a profit on this.
> 
> The poem, Eros Turannos (Tyrannical Love), was written by the great Edwin Arlington Robinson. In reference to the poem, Daisuke would be the “she” while Ken is the “he.”  
> The plot, per usual, is wholly mine.
> 
> This story is a DaiKaiser (no, that isn’t a typo *steals the term “DaiSer” from Jekka*) and contains naughty language, violence, SHOUNEN-AI, SEX, and a tiny bit of extremely mild BD. There’re also some light Sting/Flame overtones. This is a love story, peeps–nothing more and nothing less. Get over it or leave now.  
> While I like this fic a great deal (*smirks* It’s my first Kaiser ficcie. ^___^V), this is a one-shot. THERE WILL NOT BE A SEQUEL TO THIS.
> 
> Special thanks go to the transcendently impressive Jekka-chan for being kind enough to beta for me. *turns into puppy-Tsuzuki-like-Vain and glomps Jekka* Sankyuuu!!!!
> 
> ~ Please review and enjoy the fic. ~
> 
>  
> 
> [A/N1: Weir: (n) a fence of stake set in a stream for the purpose of fishing or capturing fish; a dam. A/N2: Jyou is slightly OOC. 1) This is 02 Jyou–he’s grown up a bit since 01. 2) I like my Jyou. If you don’t like him, that’s just too damn bad. ^_~ ]
> 
>   
> **\- = = = = O = = = = -**  
> 

  


**“She fears him and will always ask  
What fated her to choose him;  
She meets in his engaging mask  
All reasons to refuse him;  
But what she meets and what she fears  
Are less than are the downward years  
Drawn slowly to the foamless weirs  
Of age, were she to lose him.”**  


**= = = = = = = = =**

  
**Movement One  
~ The One Who Broke You ~**   


**\- = = = = O = = = = -  
**

  
_H_ e dipped down lower towards the treetops, enjoying the feel of the wind and the moonlight against his armored body. The buzzing of his long wings was surprisingly low–an almost pleasant humming noise. “Do you think he’ll come tonight?” 

The human child sitting in his arms grunted non-committally.

“Master?” The digimon looked down at his boy. “You are displeased?”

“. . . I don’t understand this. I should be angry. I _was_ angry. And now . . . That _boy_ takes far too many liberties. One day he’ll go too far.”

The insect-type remained silent, allowing his master to mull the problem over in his head.

“Will you tell him?” he prodded after a moment.

The human did not answer him.

The digimon dipped a bit lower, searching for two particular scents. If they didn’t come tonight, he wasn’t sure what the boy would do. A month ago, there was no way that the human would have allowed this. For _him_ to be at another’s beck and call . . . It was preposterous. But he suddenly _was_ –and even stranger, he either didn’t notice, or he didn’t mind. It was a very subtle change, but it was slowly growing. The child was changing. And it was quite obviously for the better. Now if he could just get him to _see_ that he was changing for the better . . .

The Champion caught the scents he was looking for and sped up a bit. “Well,” he tried again, “why do you think you tolerate this?”

The boy made a strange frustrated noise in the back of his throat. “I don’t . . . I don’t _have_ to tolerate this.”

“Then why do you?”

The human sniffed and adjusted his cape in the wind. “Because it amuses me to do so.”

It was a dismissal–a clear sign that the conversation was over. The digimon snorted, but wisely said nothing. He may have more leeway with his boy these days, but he wasn’t stupid. In love or not, the Digimon Kaiser was still the Kaiser, and the Kaiser was not someone to be toyed with.  
 ****

  
= = = = = = = = =  


  
He could feel his eyes on him: at home, when he turned on the TV and the other boy’s face was pasted on the screen along with desperate requests for information; in school when he heard those annoying fangirls whispering and bemoaning their loss; in the Digital World, he was there too . . . Watching him . . . In battle he could hear him whispering into his mind . . . _“Why, ‘Suke?”_ Even when he was alone here in the dark forest he could feel those cold violet eyes chipping away at him. 

The boy sighed into the moist night and ran a hand uselessly through his untamable hair. Spots off moonlight fell on his tanned skin, lighting his rich brown eyes up and giving him a soft glow despite his almost childishly simple khaki shorts and long sleeved tee-shirt outfit. His bomber jacket lay on the grass, unsuited for this weather, but his goggles, goggles given to him in sacred trust by his idol, were still nestled safely in his red-brown hair.

“We can still go back,” Flamedramon said gently. “If you want to, we could still leave. I don’t think he would be angry at you; he wasn’t the last time.”

Daisuke shook his head in the darkness and looked strangely pleased. “No. He’d forgive me, I know. He’d forgive me of almost anything, I think.”

The armor type frowned at his boy. “Does it bother you?” he asked after a moment.

“What? Not telling the others?”

Flamedramon grunted.

“No. Ken wants me to tell them. He wants me to leave them.” The wild-haired boy looked up at him and grinned faintly. He grinned because a simple smile just wasn’t his style. “I won’t.”

“They could catch you. Even though Ken taught you how to hide your digivice, they still could find out. What then?”

“Then I guess they find out and we move on from there.”

Flamedramon said nothing and Daisuke returned to scanning the sky.

“They wouldn’t understand,” he resumed moments later.

“I know.” The digimon lifted his head back and inhaled deeply. “They’re coming.”

Daisuke began to unconsciously straighten his clothes. The buzzing was the first thing they heard, quickly followed by the rustle of leaves as another digimon descended into the foliage. A few moments later a slight shadow emerged from the night closely followed by an enormous one.

The Digimon Kaiser stopped several feet away from Daisuke and stared at him, eyes hidden behind a pair of bulky looking, yellow framed, purple lenses. The ivory-skinned boy was dressed in his typical tight white body suit with blue lines on it that brought out the blue in his spiked indigo hair. A split cape flared dramatically behind him, looking like wings as the yellow edges caught the little moonlight that reached the forest floor. A deceptively tame-looking whip was coiled up and hung at his waist.

The digimon walking behind him, a tall virus type called Stingmon, came to a halt a respectful distance back. The digimon radiated both menace and strong dependability as he towered over his young master. Green body armor covered most of frame, including his face and he had two long, delicate looking antennae springing from his head to fall past his shock of red-orange hair and just below his shoulders. Both the newcomers’ faces were expressionless and gave no hint as to what they were thinking. It was a somewhat otherworldly scene and it made the dark-skinned boy feel out of place and underdressed.

“Master?” Stingmon rumbled.

The Kaiser did not look away from Daisuke. “As you will.”

The Champion turned to go, but then paused a moment to look back at Flamedramon.

Daisuke grinned broadly at his partner. “Go have fun.”

Flamedramon snorted, but said nothing as he followed Stingmon into the darkness. Neither boy gave much thought to where their partners were going. They both knew that they’d be safe and in hearing range and by now they felt as comfortable with leaving their digimon alone together as the digimon did leaving them alone together.

Daisuke licked his lips and stepped forward, but stopped when the Kaiser’s voice carried to him. There was no harshness in the other boy’s voice, no reproach, only a soft gentleness that caressed Daisuke’s ears like velvet and made him flutter inside. This was not the normal voice of a Kaiser or a sadistic tyrant. This was a voice that only Daisuke got to hear. “You didn’t come again last night.”

Daisuke said nothing.

“You should have emailed me. I was waiting.”

The shorter boy shifted guiltily now, uncomfortable with the lack of emotion in the other’s voice. Ken only did that when he was upset with Daisuke. “I’m sorry, Ken . . .” he looked at the ground, intimidated by those cold violet eyes. “I . . .”

“If you’re going to stop coming,” Ken interrupted with a sudden hardness, “then just stop coming.” He opened his mouth as though he were going to say more and then stopped himself, his jaw snapping shut with a sharp _click_.

“I’m not going to stop coming! I–” Daisuke also stopped. He didn’t say the word “can’t,” but they both understood. They couldn’t stop coming even if either of them wanted to–and neither of them really wanted to.

Four swift steps brought Daisuke to stand in front of Ken where he threw his arms around the unresponsive boy and held him close. “I’m not going to stop coming,” he repeated softly again. Sometimes it was just best to speak to Ken softly. “I wouldn’t ever stop coming.”

“But you won’t tell them.” It was not a question and Ken did not relax into Daisuke’s embrace like the other boy had hoped he would.

Dai pressed his face into the slope of Ken’s neck and inhaled the scent of him. “No.”

Ken stiffened up in his arms until it was like hugging marble, but Daisuke just held on tighter.

“I should kill you,” the despot said in a tone that would have been conversational if not for the steel in his voice.

“You won’t,” came the muffled reply.

An unpleasant smile touched Ken’s lips and he gently freed his arms so that he could wrap them around Daisuke. “Oh? And why not? You’re nothing but passing amusement to me, pet. I could easily find another toy.”

The Digidestined laughed outright then, holding the young Kaiser even closer. “Maybe. But you won’t.”

Ken chuckled too. “You’re so confident.”

“It’s one of my talents.”

The Kaiser snorted. “What makes you think I won’t kill you or worse if the fancy strikes me?”

Daisuke released him and grinned mischievously. “You mean you still haven’t figured it out, genius?”

Ken blinked behind his glasses and Daisuke laughed again at his expression. He reached up and pinched the fierce tyrant’s nose and kissed him gently on the lips. He was still grinning when he released Ken and pulled back. “Then I’m not gonna tell you, Ken-chan!”

Before the paler boy could recover, Daisuke plucked his glasses off his nose and ran off into the forest laughing. Ken followed him instantly, unaware of the rare faint smile that brushed his lips.  
 ****

  
= = = = = = = = =  


  
Stingmon stopped and leaned his back against a large redwood, a quiet sigh escaping him. 

“I really don’t know why you let him order you around like that,” Flamedramon said quietly.

Stingmon’s antennae twitched. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“Try me.” The Armor type crossed his arms over his chest, a considerable feat given the spike-tipped gauntlets that adorned his forearms and covered his hands. “He’s your partner, not your master. It’s not supposed to be like that.”

Stingmon tended to be a fairly quirky digimon anyway, but talking to him about his boy was like talking to a wall of thorns. You just couldn’t get through and the more you pushed, the more it hurt you. Flamedramon had been prodding and pesting for over a month for his friend to do something about the Kaiser, but Stingmon wouldn’t hear it. _“You wouldn’t understand,”_ tended to be about as far as the conversation would get.

But Stingmon’s laconic responses didn’t put him off in the least. After all, if Daisuke could change the Kaiser, then surely it was his duty to work on the Kaiser’s right hand mon.

“He’s changing.”

Flamedramon looked over at Stingmon sharply. To say that the green Champion was overprotective of his master would be an understatement. Flamedramon was the only digimon who could come out of criticizing the Kaiser completely unscathed, as far he knew. This immunity was something of a puzzle for the blue dragon-like digimon because he knew that it had nothing to do with Daisuke or anything Ken had said. The decision was completely Stingmon’s prerogative, but how Flamedramon had earned such a high place in the implacably loyal insect’s affections was a mystery.

“What do you mean?” he asked the other digimon curiously.

Stingmon shrugged, a tiny lifting of his shoulders. “Ken-chan. He’s changing. It’s Daisuke. He hasn’t been as angry or as cold since he and Daisuke started . . . this. He hasn’t even been taking over territory or enslaving digimon at the same speed. He’s getting better, I think.”

He’s getting better. As though he had been sick with a cold or something and was just now coming out of it. Had he been sick? The other children seemed to think he was sick–especially Jyou and Iori–but Daisuke only seemed to think that Ken was wrong, not that there was something wrong _with_ him. And Daisuke _was_ his partner and tended to be right about those things . . . Flamedramon frowned. But was there even a distinction?

If he asked Stingmon though, the other digimon would probably just clam up again.

“Have you ever flown?”

Flamedramon blinked and wondered if he had somehow missed something when he’d been lost in thought.

“Not in this form. Why do you ask?”

The virus type pushed himself off the tree and there was a strange “ _scithck_ ” noise as his long iridescent wings burst from their covering. Flamedramon took a step back, intimidated despite himself. The wings seemed to glow in the faint moonlight.

Before Flamedramon could protest, Stingmon’s wings started beating and the other digimon darted behind him and lifted him off the ground.

Flamedramon let loose a very undignified and un-Armor-digivolution-like yelp of dismay as Stingmon held him underneath his arms and dangled him a good three feet off the ground. “Put me down!”

Stingmon laughed, a very rare, very pleasant sound and rose a bit higher. “Relax. I’m not going to drop you; you’re actually fairly light.”

“That isn’t the point,” the dragon fumed as he watched the ground get farther and farther away. “This is humiliating.” He scowled when he realized that he was actually whining.

“Relax,” the insect repeated, sounding even more amused than before. “I just need to stretch my wings. Walking around is terribly dull and it makes me feel heavy.”

“Then why did you have to bring me along?”

“Because it would have been rude to just leave you there by yourself and I wanted the company.”

Still grumbling, Flamedramon allowed himself to relax and stared in fascination at the tops of the trees. Despite the way he was being dangled like a fishing lure, it wasn’t uncomfortable and the night air felt nice. Walking around in Armor form for a long time got tiring sometimes. All things considered, this actually wasn’t that bad–not that he’d ever tell Stingmon that.

“What if they need us?”

“Then Ken will call me.” Flamedramon could have sworn that he heard Stingmon laughing again. “I can hear Ken no matter where I am in the Digital World. Can’t you hear Daisuke?”

The blue digimon blinked and looked down. They had begun making wide circles of the area where they could both feel their partners’ presences. “I never had to.” The wind blew and he could faintly smell Daisuke and Ken’s scents.

After a few moments of silence, Stingmon sighed again. “He’s in love with him, you know.”

Flamedramon looked up sharply, but Stingmon was staring straight ahead, so all that could be seen was his neck and chin. “What?”

“Ken. He’s fallen in love with Daisuke.”

Flamedramon looked down at the trees again. “I see.”

Nothing else was said after that and Stingmon continued his lazy circles for a good hour or so more.  
 ****

  
= = = = = = = = =  


  
Tree limbs snapped as he ran deeper into the woods. It was a hunt. Daisuke knew that Ken loved a good hunt. As he ran it occurred to the goggle-boy to wonder why this was happening, how it was possible that Motomiya Daisuke, the Child of Courage and Friendship was capering in the woods with an admittedly sadistic monster whose greatest pleasures consisted of inflicting pain solely for the sake of pain. For the sake of —his- pain: a well so deep that sometimes Daisuke would look deep into his blue-violet eyes and almost drown in it. Ken did not share this pain with Dai, nor did Stingmon share it with Flamedramon; it was merely something recognized, acknowledged, and bypassed for more enjoyable pastimes. 

Daisuke broke free of the tree line and found himself in a clearing. There was a large, extremely deep fresh water pond in the center of the clearing with a massive rock formation on one side and enormous cedars with purple-black leaves standing guard over the place. It was perfect, wild and pristine at the same time. It was their special place. The Digidestined did not know of it, nor did any digimon past the in-training stage that Daisuke knew of. It was just their spot. It had been here that they had faced off that first night.

Dai had been furious after his humiliation over the Bakemon incident and had come for a “final showdown” between only him and Ken. Only Veemon had accompanied him and, at his furious demands, the Kaiser had sent away his Airdramon so that only he and Wormmon remained. The fight had been a fistfight, knock-down-drag-out style. No holds barred and no digimon permitted to swoop to the rescue.

It was just them and they had both gone at it with everything to prove and everything to lose . . . Until he knocked Ken down and the other boy struck his head on a rock and fell into the lake. Unconscious, Ken’s heavy outfit and the multiple gadgets he had built into his uniform drug him down. Daisuke had immediately dove in after him, more afraid than he had thought possible for his enemy, and searched desperately for the boy genius. But it was far too dark for his human eyes and he had no success. Ken probably would have died that night if Wormmon hadn’t digivolved and saved him at the eleventh hour. The Digital World would have been safe . . . But things hadn’t turned out that way.

Stingmon had hauled Ken out of the water and was so furious that he had nearly attacked Daisuke outright the second he laid his half-dead human on the grass. He would have attacked the boy if the human had not immediately started giving Ken mouth to mouth and held the violet-eyed Kaiser desperately to his chest when he started to cough and sputter.

It had been a strange night. Daisuke had held his mortal enemy to him and rocked him back and forth murmuring nonsense for the longest time; all the while Ken clung to him like a frightened child to its mother. It had been a very strange night . . . And nothing had been the same afterwards.

Daisuke darted over to the rocks to hide. He knew that Ken could find him, but this game wasn’t about finding–it was about catching. If Ken caught him, he won the game and got to pick the price . . . or prize. But if Daisuke caught Ken then he could do whatever he wanted to the all-mighty Kaiser: a thought that appealed to him greatly. He had never caught Ken before despite the fact that the other boy was beginning to get noticeably careless.

Daisuke clambered up to the top of the rocks and crouched down low, fully intent on using the shadows to his advantage. A flash of yellow-fringed navy gave the despot away and the brunet grinned triumphantly. Seconds later a shrill war cry burst from the smaller boy’s lips and he leapt off the rock, the stolen glasses flashing brightly in his hand. Ken whirled around just in time to get a good look at the wild expression of glee on Dai’s face as the wild-haired boy slammed into him, sending them both tumbling to the ground.

The two rolled around for a moment, both smiling and neither ready to yield yet. After Daisuke’s hands brushed against him in a particularly nice way, Ken suddenly relaxed and his face smoothed over.

“Mmmmm . . .”

He stilled, allowing his combatant to roll over one more time so that he lay on the grass and Daisuke was sitting on top of him. A pair of laughing brown eyes stared down at him and it occurred to him that Daisuke was suddenly beautiful. Ken smiled. He really _had_ missed this strange bundle of energy that was perched on top of him. And judging by the way his body was reacting he had missed him in more ways than one. First things first, then.

Daisuke grinned. “Dude, you should have seen the look on your face! I thought that you were gonna scream.”

“Is that so?” Ken purred as he began to work Daisuke’s belt loose.

Oblivious to the Kaiser’s roaming hands, the other boy nodded eagerly. “I wish I had a picture of that. That was one in a million! It was like that movie where the guy with that thing on his thumb hit that other guy–did you see that movie? It was the best–”

“Daisuke . . .” It was somehow both a plea and an order and the urgency of it made the goggle boy stop his wild gesticulating and looked back down the slender boy between his legs.

Ken was staring up at him intensely and his pupils were dilated, making his eyes appear unnaturally large. For an instant, Dai was so drawn into those enormous hollows that he forgot himself in them until Ken hitched his hips up, forcing Daisuke to shift slightly and reminding him of their position.

Finally tugging the belt free of the loops, the pale boy began to fight with the zipper of Daisuke’s pants. “I missed you . . . last night . . .” Ken murmured between heavy gasps.

He slipped his fingers into Dai’s pants and gently brushed against the tanned boy’s erection. Daisuke’s eyes fluttered shut and he moaned softly, lifting his hips up slightly into those feather light touches. “Cheater,” he grumbled half-heartedly. “I won, not you. This was supposed to be–ahhhh!”

The Kaiser smiled ferally at the intense look on his lover’s face. “You got distracted,” he murmured in a low smoky voice that he knew Daisuke found irresistible. “I was just . . . getting your attention . . .”

Chuckling silently at the strained look on his partner’s face, Ken shifted slightly again, this time moving to roll over so that he was on top

Daisuke’s eyes snapped open and he suddenly grabbed Ken’s wrists and placed them above his head. “Cheater,” he repeated. He grinned then, his face assuming what Taichi called his “Daisuke Has A Plan” look. He hadn’t really had a chance to really have fun with Ken yet. At least, not like this.

Ken’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “Let go of my hands, Daisuke.”

“Nope!” his lover declared cheerily. “You were cheating, so now it’s my turn to have fun.”

Ignoring the increasingly lethal look the Kaiser was leveling at him, the goggle boy reached down to Ken’s belt with his free hand and removed his whip. Ken was more than strong enough to break free of Daisuke’s hold if he really wanted to, so he was going to need something a bit stronger to keep the dear Kaiser’s hands occupied. Humming off tune, he worked the whip around Ken’s wrists with one hand.

The Kaiser smirked. “I can easily extricate myself from this whenever it suits me, you know. How long do you think I’ll permit you to keep me here?”

Daisuke ignored him and started to sing something under his breath. Ken rolled his eyes; the boy couldn’t carry a tune for the life of him, yet he insisted on singing . . . often . . . and normally quite loudly. Looking bored, Ken sighed dramatically. “Not that I mind your kinks, ‘Suke, but didn’t you insisted we not use the whip?”

“No, I insisted _you_ wouldn’t use it.” After tying a clumsy knot in the thick leather, Daisuke sat back and observed his handy-work with a frown. That didn’t look very good at all.

Ken sighed again and easily slipped his slender wrists out of the leather knot. He displayed his wrists and made a clucking sound in his throat. “I can show you how to do it the right way if you really want me to . . .” An indigo eyebrow waggled suggestively.

“You’re no fun.” Daisuke pouted, putting as much of his considerable cuteness into play as he possibly could. It normally worked on Ken, Supreme Ruler of the Digital World or not, but this time the violet-eyed boy was sticking to his guns. “I am not letting you tie me up, Daisuke.”

Large crocodile tears shimmered in brown eyes. “But . . . You’ll like it. I promise.”

“No.”

Feeling ingenious, the tanned boy decided to use Ken’s dirty trick against him and shifted his hips ever~ so~ slightly~ . . . They both groaned.

Ken’s tilted his head back and bit his lip. “That . . . is not going to work on me, ‘Suke.”

“Mmmm . . . Wanna bet?” Daisuke grinned down at the Kaiser between his legs as he continued to rock back and forth.

The pale boy grabbed onto Daisuke’s hips with a growl of frustration and tried to roll over so that he was on top. Dai may have been the smaller of the two, but he was much more solidly built and heavier than the little Kaiser and both gravity and the very . . . interesting . . . things his body was doing prevented the action, leaving him very frustratingly and pleasantly helpless.

After a few more moments of tormenting his lover, Daisuke looked down. “Can I tie you up now?”

“Like . . . hell,” Ken groaned. “I am going to make you pay for this, Daisu–ugh!”

Thin sheens of sweat were beginning to cover both their faces and it was becoming unbearably hot. Ken made a very, very strange sound in the back his throat that probably would have been a whimper if he had been anyone else.

“Now?”

“I _hate_ you.”

“Uh-huh.” Daisuke changed his grinding motion to rough thrusting. “Now?”

The Kaiser hissed in frustration and bucked futilely. His fingernails scraped at the thin fabric of his partner’s tee shirt. “’Suke!”

Daisuke’s brown eyes danced with delight at the look on Ken’s face and he reached down and obligingly tugged the garment off, careful to continue his thrusting motion. The boy underneath him moaned at the feel of the slick skin beneath his hands and Daisuke laughed, a surprisingly predatory sound. Ken’s hands slid up his back restlessly and gripped his shoulders to pull him down into a kiss.

The goggle-boy laughed and easily resisted his efforts. “Now?”

Ken groaned.

Still laughing, Daisuke leaned down and kissed his lover passionately. This time when he caught the pale boy’s wrists in his hands and raised them above his head he met no resistance. Moving by touch alone, the wild-haired boy swiftly bound Ken’s hands together with the whip, this time making sure that the knot was tight. Ken bit his lips so hard that it bled and bucked slightly.

“Mmmmm . . .” Daisuke pulled back and stared him with a decidedly satisfied look on his face. “What to do, what to do?”

Ken stared at him with glazed, unfocused eyes.

“I know!” With a broad grin, Daisuke scooted a bit further down Ken’s body and began to undo the deceptively simple looking belt that hid the place where Ken’s shirt met the top of his pants. Once the belt was out of the way, he moved further down to tug off the indigo-haired boy’s heavy boots.

Ken shook his head to clear it, vaguely aware that his wrists were aching and his hair had somehow fallen out of its trademark spikes. “Dai . . .”

“Just a minute, Ken. Lift your hips up for me.”

Feeling somewhat bemused and oddly lightheaded, the Kaiser obeyed and groaned as the air brushed his skin. Some tiny nagging voice told him that this was not at _all_ the way things were supposed to be, but then Daisuke was tugging at his briefs and his hands were touching him in places that no one had ever touched him and–

“Ahhh!”

_Something_ . . . something warm and wet and utterly indescribable brushed over the tip of his penis and his hips jerked up eagerly. He lifted his head and blinked blearily at the top of Daisuke’s head. It was somehow getting extremely difficult to think and he had a sudden panicked urge to throw the other boy off him. Something inside him rebelled at this loss of control, despite the fact that he seemed to have forgotten why. “’Suke . . .?”

The boy looked up and frowned at the befuddled look on Ken’s face. “Did I do something wrong?”

Ken shook his head. He didn’t know what the hell had just happened, but he knew that it certainly hadn’t _felt_ wrong.

“Good.” Daisuke’s head dropped again and suddenly that fantastic feeling wasn’t just teasing his tip, but it felt like it was everywhere and all the nerves in his body throbbed along with his arousal.

Daisuke hummed softly and smiled at the soft noises Ken was making. He really didn’t have much to go on here except for what Ken had done to him and what he had seen on the Internet, so he was quite pleased that his late night browsing had paid off. After tormenting Ken for a few more minutes, he gave the tip of his lover’s penis one last teasing suckle before he settled back on his knees and stared at the boy displayed in front of him.

This was going a lot better than he had thought that it would. Ken was surprisingly passive tonight and although Daisuke didn’t know why, he decided that he most definitely liked it. Ken groaned and looked like he was going to start struggling again soon though and it suddenly occurred to Daisuke that he didn’t have any lubricant.

He frowned and leaned down over the other boy’s face. “Ken, I don’t have–”

Ken opened his eyes and they were a strange murky blue color that he had never seen before. “Do it.”

Daisuke’s eyes widened. “But–”

“Do it,” the Kaiser repeated. “I want to feel it all.”

“But I’ll hurt you . . .”

Ken closed his eyes and arched his hips up in the air. “Daisuke . . .”

He felt like he was on fire was Ken’s bare erection grazed his unzipped pants and he immediately pulled back and tugged his shorts and underwear down to his knees. Ken was absolutely gorgeous and Daisuke knew that Ken wanted him to do this but it would hurt him. He needed something, anything at all . . .

He blinked and stared down at Ken’s erection. “Perfect . . .”

The brunet began to spit on his hands, a quick temporary fix, before rubbing himself. Once he was satisfied, and his mouth was dry, he gently teased Ken’s erection, coaxing out a bit more precum to make the pain a little less. The Kaiser growled in frustration at his ministrations.

“Hush. Just a little more.”

Once he was satisfied, he moved one still-wet finger between the Kaiser's legs. Ken immediately closed his legs around Dai’s hand.

“Quit fucking around and do it!” he snapped peevishly.

Daisuke stared. “But I have to–”

Ken looked up and his violet eyes narrowed dangerously. The slightly glazed look never left him though and he couldn’t quite seem to focus on Daisuke. “’Suke. I want it now.”

Dai bit his lip in consternation before ignoring Ken’s glare and sliding his finger in anyway. The despot let out a low, deep growl at the intrusion, but he didn’t tense up. Encouraged, Dai slowly worked the finger in him for a moment before sliding a second one in. He pressed in deeply this time, searching for the place that would make Ken scream. It didn’t take him long to find it.

Ken’s back arched slightly and he gasped. “Dai, just . . . Dai!”

The fingers were gently removed and Daisuke leaned down and brushed his lips against Ken’s. “Didn’t . . . want . . . to hurt you,” he gasped. His body shook in expectation.

His lover groaned and lifted his hips, his bound hands jerking helplessly above his head.

The Digidestined pulled Ken’s body up into his lap and was gratified when the Kaiser wrapped his legs around his waist. Placing his hands on Ken’s hips he smiled apologetically. “If it hurts too much tell me to stop.”

Ken’s eyes lidded and he seemed to go limp. “Just do it.”

Daisuke hesitated for an instant and then nodded. He closed his eyes and slowly pushed forward. Ken arched his back slightly against him, his muscles clamping down, and grunted soundlessly at the invasion, but he didn’t pull away and Daisuke didn’t stop until he was all the way in.

“Oh, Ken . . .” This was so surprisingly different than being the bottom. To complete his Ken like this and be so much a part of him . . . He wanted to make this incredibly intense feeling last forever, but somehow it wasn’t enough–it would never be enough. _Is this what Ken feels?_ he thought distractedly.

“D–Dai . . .” The soft groan broke through the haze that had stolen over him and Daisuke shifted slightly, changing his angle and Ken bit his lip and tossed his head back in a way that made Daisuke whimper softly. He pulled out and thrust forward again, needing to hear Ken cry out again. He repeated the motion, sheathing his entire length in the boy beneath him again and again, but was frustrated by the Kaiser’s stubborn silence.

The other boy’s hands clutched desperately at the grass above his head, tearing the dirt. His lips parted, but he made no noise.

Daisuke whimpered as he pushed forward. “Ken . . .”

Feeling himself come close to climax, he increased the rhythm and reached down and wrapped his hand around Ken’s erection. The boy cried out softly as he began to stroke him, encouraging him to speed up. “Harder . . .”

He couldn’t move fast enough and every thrust seemed to jar his entire body. He was co close to the release he craved. The explosion that would make his whole body melt and his mind go numb and Ken was absolutely writhing beneath him. His hand tightened and he felt Ken swell slightly in his grip. So close . . . so very, very close . . . How did Ken do this for so long?

Ken back arched and he groaned. Something inside of him seemed to explode–a silent burst of light behind his eyelids–as he climaxed, his muscles tightening around Daisuke to an impossible degree, making his lover whimper and shudder. Seconds later, Daisuke followed him into and he opened his mouth soundlessly as the warmth of the other boy’s release filled him.

He didn’t even feel it when Daisuke pulled out of him and unbound his hands. He tingled and his brain seemed to have turned to sludge. Ken’s eyes closed heavily. That had been . . . different. They refused to open again.

Daisuke closed his eyes and snuggled up to Ken. “Mmmm . . . that was nice.”

The pale boy grunted and wrapped an arm around Daisuke, pulling him closer.

“Hey, Ken-chan?” There was no reply. “Ken?” Dai raised his head and looked at his lover. Ken’s eyes were closed, but Daisuke wasn’t sure if he was asleep yet. Sometimes the boy liked to pretend he was asleep; why, Dai didn’t know. It wasn’t worth disturbing him, though.  
 ****

  
= = = = = = = = =  


  
He was drifting in a soft haze, his body floating in a way that shouldn’t have been possible. He was not asleep, but he was not awake either and where ever he was was somewhere so much better than awake or asleep. There was no decision here, nothing to pull him in so many directions at once . . . There were no nightmares here either. There was nothing but endless gray. He floated there for a small eternity, wanting nothing more than to sleep forever, but something was pulling at him–a tugging, a pain in his head that ran to the very center of his being. And _that_ pain, he knew, would never be denied. 

Ken opened blearily eyes and groaned. His head ached fiercely and he felt sticky and dirty. And hot. He twisted slightly, realizing that his arm was tucked under Daisuke’s sleeping frame and the other boy was sprawled across him in a rather uncomfortable position. The indigo-haired boy was naked from the waist down and his tight blue and white shirt had been bunched up under his arms. Daisuke was shirtless but he still wore his pants and underwear rumpled and tangled about his ankles. His sneakers were still on and neatly laced.

How they had managed to sleep like this was beyond Ken, but Daisuke started to snore and the more Ken’s head cleared up, the more disgusting he felt. The Emperor scowled slightly and began to gently rearrange Daisuke so that he could move. There was a painful crick in the back of his neck and he couldn’t seem to clearly remember what all had occurred earlier. He didn’t feel at all like himself.

He sat up and immediately grimaced at the unaccustomed stickiness on his stomach. _Oh . . . Now I remember._

He looked down at Daisuke and frowned. That most certainly was _not_ the way he had intended for the night to go. He had intended on reaming Daisuke out for making him wait. He had intended to call this entire thing to a halt. He had intended . . . to . . . to . . . The longer he stared at Daisuke the harder it was to remember exactly what he had intended to do or why and he was suddenly very tempted to just lay back down and go back to sleep. And his neck really, really _hurt_.

The Kaiser released a long hissing breath and wiggled away from his partner. Daisuke snorted softly in his sleep.

A sharp pain moved through his lower body and Ken started to curse. Where the hell had that boy put his clothes? A few moments of mucking about in the thin silver moonlight were rewarded with a pair of heavy black boots, white socks and briefs, and spandex pants. He knelt at the edge of the lake and washed himself off before pulling his clothes back on. They felt moist and dirty.

He was annoyed. He was more than annoyed–he was furious. He wasn’t sure why, but the feeling just kept growing and couldn’t find his glasses. He had had those glasses since before he had put up his first control spire. They were the first part of his uniform that he had designed and they were his favorite part. They made him look older and sophisticated and Daisuke had taken them and now he couldn’t find them and–

He stopped short and stood up from lacing his boots. It was getting harder to breathe and his hands were beginning to tremble and he immediately recognized the beginning of a panic attack. He hadn’t had an attack since he was nine years old and his father had spanked him for getting a B on his geometry test. He had nearly shaken himself apart that night. But he hadn’t had a panic attack since, nor had he ever received another B.

So why was he having one now? And over a pair of _glasses_ of all things?

Daisuke muttered and rolled, an arm reaching out to find his boyfriend. His eyes opened and he blinked as he sat up. “Ken-chan?”

Ken bit his lip and resumed lacing his boots without answering him, more than a little bit relieved to notice that the tremors were slowing. He jerked the laces up with unnecessary violence and made a quick bow.

“Ken?”

He shouldn’t be mad at Daisuke. He had allowed him to top. He had asked him to top and the way it felt . . . had been much different than what he had been expecting. He had stayed in control all evening. So why was he upset?

He could hear the other boy fixing his clothes and a moment later Daisuke joined him at the waterside and began washing the stickiness off his stomach. Ken stood and watched him for a moment, transfixed by the shimmering silver moonlight that water reflected onto the goggle boy’s golden brown skin.

His anger was already fading.

Daisuke looked up at Ken and his brown eyes looked like velvet. “Ken . . .? I didn’t do anything wrong, did I? I mean, I didn’t hurt you too bad . . . did I?”

Ken opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He bit his lip and turned away, a pained expression on his face. “No,” he muttered to the ground.

“Ken?”

The Kaiser turned back around and forced a smirk onto his lips. “You were great, ‘Suke.” He bent down and brushed his lips against Daisuke’s teasingly. “Better than great.”

Daisuke grinned and Ken turned away again. _How do you do this to me?_

_You’re weak for him . . ._

It could have been the wind, but it sounded too much like a voice for Ken to believe that–too much like the voice of someone long dead but never, ever forgotten. And for the first time since he had donned the garb of the Digimon Kaiser, he was afraid. He was afraid of the dead sibilant whisper in the wind and he was afraid that it was right.

But could this loud, obnoxious, ill-mannered little human boy–this social nothing–really be his weakness? No. The idea was ludicrous. He was Ichijouji Ken, a name synonymous with perfection. He was the Kaiser and the Kaiser had no weakness. And Daisuke was merely a toy for his amusement. He was in total control here. Total control.

Daisuke looked back up, surprised to see Ken’s shoulders move up and down in a silent chuckle. He blinked up at his sometimes friend and grinned. “So it was really okay then?”

“Splendid,” the Kaiser purred in assurance.

Daisuke stood up and beamed before throwing his arms around Ken, impulsively squeezing him so hard that the mighty Emperor let out a small gasp of surprise. “Good!” The Digidestined released the pale boy and stepped back, a broad smile still on his face. “I just want you to be happy, Ken.”

Ken’s face softened then, turning into something gentle without the harsh lines and flat eyes that had become his trademark. Daisuke took a step forward, a small thrill going through him at the sight and–

A loud cracking noise shattered the stillness of the night and Daisuke stumbled backward, body jerking slightly as he tried not to lose his balance. “What the . . .?”

Ken made a strange grunting sound when he saw what Daisuke had stepped on: a pair of yellow glasses with purple lenses. They had been right next to him the whole time.

Daisuke’s hands flew up his mouth and his eyes widened. “Oh, dude! Your glasses! My God, I’m so sorry, Ken-chan! I–”

The Kaiser ignored him and bent over to pick up the shattered glasses as carefully as though he were touching a broken flower. One of the lenses was shattered beyond repair and the other was cracked. The frame was twisted into something almost unrecognizable. “It’s fine.” His voice was completely emotionless.

Daisuke swallowed hard. “Ken . . .”

“I said it’s fine.” The taller boy stood up and started walking towards the forest where they had left their partners. “They’re only glasses. I can get more.” _They’re just glasses_ , he repeated to himself. _Nothing to get excited over_. He clenched his hands into fists to stop them from shaking.

He stopped and turned around, his eyes narrowing as he stared at the other boy as a pair of doleful chocolate brown eyes bore into him. He suddenly felt the need to crack Daisuke’s skull open. He couldn’t seem to move to do it, though. “Now come on if you’re coming. We’ve already been out here for over two hours.”

Daisuke blushed and sheepishly scrambled to finish adjusting his clothes. The two trudged away from their spot in a deep uneasy silence.

After several minutes, Daisuke spoke into the darkness, his voice sounding unusually subdued. “Ken?”

“What?”

“I really _am_ sorry about the glasses.”

There was a muffled crunch as the Kaiser’s fist tightened around the ruined glasses, shattering the other lens in his hand. “It’s okay.” His voice sounded strained and insubstantial. “It was an accident.”

_You’re weak for him . . ._

“. . . You’re not mad at me are you?”

He really should bash the boy’s skull in. “No, ‘Suke.” It shouldn’t matter to him at all. This was all a game, right? “I’m not mad at you.”

None of this was real. None of this meant anything.

_You’re weak for him_ , the trees taunted. _You’re weak for him_ , the earth underneath them whispered.

It shouldn’t matter to him.

Daisuke looped an arm around Ken’s shoulder and grinned. “Good.” He kissed the pale boy lightly on the cheek.

So why did it then?

Ken squeezed the broken lens until it sliced through his glove and cut deep into his palm.

Daisuke started to rattle off about what he had to do at school tomorrow and how happy he was that his family could sleep through anything so they never suspected that he was using the computer at night. And Ken couldn’t stop shaking.

****

  


\- = = = = O = = = = -  



	2. The One Who Broke You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Winner of Nemesi's DaiKen contest; Daisuke breaks the Kaiser. . . . Sorta.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * * *

****

  


\- = = = = O = = = = -

“Between a blurred sagacity  
That once had power to sound him,  
And Love, that will not let him be  
The Judas that she found him,  
Her pride assuages her almost,  
As if it alone were the cost.–  
He sees that he will not be lost,  
And waits and looks around him.”

= = = = = = = = =

Movement Two  
~ Bitter Sugar ~

\- = = = = O = = = = -  


  


_I_ t sounded something like an explosion and sparks flew everywhere, illuminating a fleeing gazimon as pieces from the monitor screen shattered when they hit the metal floor.

“ _God_ damn it!!!!”

Stingmon watched the Kaiser’s rage calmly, seemingly oblivious to the small rookie digimon, ringed and unringed alike, that dashed this way and that in a futile attempt to escape their master’s fury. A second crash came as Ken hurled something resembling a large calculator into another monitor. One of the digimon shrieked as glass rained down on its head. Stingmon sighed silently.

“Get out!” the Kaiser screeched. “All of you!! If even one of you lingers, you’re going right to the pit!”

The pit, the gaming pit where the Kaiser ordered his more useless or difficult slaves to fight their friends to the death, was one of the more unpleasant punishments Ken spent his free time devising, but it was not by far the worst. Once the Kaiser started issuing threats though, they tended to work their way up in severity. Very rarely did he ever start with the worst he could do. “Saving the best for last,” he had called it.

As the last ringed floramon fled the control room, the boy literally threw himself down into his throne and slouched down into the hard backed seat, still muttering profanities under his breath. Stingmon walked away from his place by the door and came to stand just behind the throne’s right shoulder. His red eyes surveyed the damage dispassionately but he said nothing.

After a few moments the Kaiser stood back up and began to rearrange his clothes. “Something,” he told his digimon in a hard voice, “something is going to have to be done about this . . . this . . . situation.” He made the word “situation” sound like something vulgar.

Stingmon’s antennae twitched slightly and he frowned behind his facemask at the dark expression on his human’s face. “Master . . .”

“This cannot be allowed to continue. I will not allow this to continue,” the child Emperor continued over the champion’s worried voice. “If he thinks . . . if that _brat_ thinks that he can just _do_ things like that then–” he broke off and whirled around, tearing one of the heavy metal bands around his wrist off and hurling it at a monitor. The glass shattered with a pop and a crash. “Damnit, I am the Digimon _Kaiser_!! NOBODY, _NOBODY_ , not Motomiya Daisuke, not some digimon, not anyone, uses me!” Violet eyes narrowed as he stared down at the shards of glass on the floor. “And it’s time that everyone learned that once and for all.”

Stingmon shifted uneasily.

The Kaiser turned back around and put his fists on his hips, critically surveying the virus type’s appearance. He smirked and there was a hint of madness in the expression. “And you may be just the thing I need.”

The digimon stiffened, suddenly understanding where his boy’s thoughts were going. Since his digivolution, he had never left his master’s side. He was Ken’s partner. He was the Kaiser’s bodyguard. He was not an executioner.

He was a Chosen Digimon. He could _not_ be an executioner. He could _not_ be– “No.” He spoke as though he were standing before someone other than the Kaiser. “Out of the question.”

Ken’s eyes narrowed dangerously behind his glasses. “Did I ask for your opinion?”

“Master–”

“If you won’t do it the way you are now,” the human broke in a silky voice, “then I’ll simply have to put a ring on you, now won’t I?”

Stingmon stiffened and his antennae twitched slightly. A ring. As Wormmon, he hadn’t even been worth the metal, but now as Stingmon . . .

A single finger tapped briskly on stomach plate. “Or I’ll just send you away,” the child continued conversationally. He grinned, a slow cruel expression that twisted his delicate features into something forced and ugly. “Maybe I’ll do it anyway. Just for disobeying me . . . You know . . . the caliber of your discipline . . . your attitude . . . has really faltered over the past few weeks. Perhaps I was wrong in giving you more latitude for digivolving. I’m not even sure if there’s still a place for you here . . .”

The digimon dropped to one knee and bowed his head in both submission and supplication, his flare of defiance gone. Daisuke . . . he wanted to protect Daisuke . . . and Flamedramon . . . But life without Ken? He’d gladly put on a spiral if it meant he could still be with his human. Without him . . . The alternative was inconceivable.

“Master . . . please . . .”

Ken’s eyes narrowed.

“Daisuke . . . he _cares_ for y–” The digimon froze when he felt a deceptively gentle hand rest on the crown of his head.

The Kaiser’s voice was a purr. “Your champion digivolution is strong, Stingmon . . . That is why I keep you close to me.” The hand gently stroked the area between his antennae. “But you forget, Stingmon . . .” the hand turned into a fist and the boy slammed it down on the digimon’s head with numbing force, “ _I_ am the master here! And you . . .” the hand resumed stroking, “are nothing more than little bits of data to be manipulated, used, and discarded as I choose.”

Due to the thickness of his armor, the blow was little more than a tap. It was not the blow that made Stingmon cringe, however.

“Yes, Master.” The finality of those words settled to the core of him.

Yes, Master. Not Ken, not Ken-chan, not Kaiser. Master. Because that’s who the Kaiser was to him. And Ken was not, nor could he ever really be Ken again. He was the digimon Kaiser and Stingmon, whether he be ringed or free, was only his slave.

The Kaiser turned around walked towards the door. “Get someone in here to clean up this mess and then go do something useful. I don’t want to see you until I summon you. And the next time D– _he_ appears in the Digital World, I want him eliminated.” Pausing at the door, the boy turned around and stared for a moment at the large digimon still kneeling on the floor. “Don’t forget who you belong to, Stingmon.”

The door hissed shut behind him, hiding the proud creature he had humbled with so little effort.

The Kaiser strode down the dimly lit halls with his back straight and his hands clenched at his sides, oblivious to the way the shadows seemed to bend towards him. His cape flared out behind him, making him appear to be larger than he really was. “I won’t be weak,” he muttered to the shadows. “Not for him . . . not like before . . . not like when–” he stopped himself abruptly, almost choking on the words as a tide of painful memories rose up in his mind. He crushed them ruthlessly and wrapped his arms around himself to ward off a chill he didn’t feel. “I won’t be weak,” he repeated. “I won’t. I won’t be weak. I won’t let him make me weak. I won’t let him . . .” _Make me hurt like that again . . ._

The darkness behind him seemed to dance in agreement.  
 ****

  


= = = = = = = = =  


  


“Hey!! I feel good! DA NA DA NA DA NA NA! And I knew that would now . . . DA NA DA NA DA NA NA!”

Motomiya Jun stopped outside her brother’s door and her mouth dropped in amazement.

“I feeee~eeeeeel good! DA NA DA NA DA NA NA! And I knew that would now . . .”

Hesitantly, the girl pushed open the door and poked her head in. Her eyes widened at the sight she saw.

“So good! DA NA! So good! ‘Cuz I got YOOO~UUUUU!!! DA NA NA! OWWWW!”

Her baby brother was jumping up and down on his bed wearing nothing but red boxer shorts and a big baggy tee-shirt that said “Monster.” In his hands the boy was holding one of his Power Ranger transformers that she had gotten him for Christmas when he was five and singing into its head like a microphone. The song–some appalling American mess that seemed to be more screaming than anything else–was being horribly mangled by Daisuke, who’s Japanese tended to be stunted by his insistence that he invent his own words and characters and who’s English was limited to “Hello,” “Goodbye,” and “Yes, Misah. I don speek America.”

“I feel nice! DA NA DA NA DA NA NA! Like-a sugar and spice, now! DA NA DA NA DA NA NA! I feeee~eeeeeel nice! DA NA DA NA DA NA NA! Like-a sugar and spice now!”

Unable to resist temptation, the wild-haired girl flung the door all the way open and tackled her brother. The two of them went tumbling down to where Daisuke swore the floor was “under all my stuff” and Jun immediately began tickling the boy. Years of both Boy Chasing and Big Sistering (her two favorite hobbies, though not necessarily in that order) had given her excellent young love and Daisuke radar. And right now, both were going off like church bells on Sunday. Once her ototochan was a nice red color from laughing, she swept him up again and began to waltz with him across the room to the blaring music, displaying a surprising amount of grace given both her lineage and the unstable condition of Daisuke’s floor.

“So,” she spun the laughing boy around once more before lightly tossing him onto his bed, “who’s the lucky girl?”

He sat up, face flushed and his eyes sparkling. “His name is Ken.”

Jun blinked. _His_ name?

With a sudden squeal of delight, she pounced on him and resumed her merciless tickle attack. “You little troll!! Why didn’t you tell me?!”

“Ack!! Air, air!!” Daisuke gasped between giggles.

Jun laughed at him and sat down on the floor next to the bed. Looking breathless and red-faced, Daisuke sat up and looked down at his sister as the girl ran her fingers through her long wild hair. “Tell me about him,” she demanded.

A goofy grin spread across Daisuke’s face and his eyes flickered as though looking at something in the distance. “He’s . . . different . . . When we stared seeing each other, it was kind of an accident. And then we just somehow never got around to quitting. He acts all mean and stuff but he’s not like that at all and . . . I dunno.”

She smiled at the moony expression on her brother’s face. “Well, squirt, as long as he makes you happy, I could care less.” Her smile broadened. “But if he hurts you . . .”

The girl shook her fist at Dai suggestively and the younger Motomiya burst out laughing. “Jun versus Ken,” he said between chortles. “The fight of the century!!”

“What? You don’t think I could take him?”

The goggle smirked. “You can’t even take me.”

“Oooh! I’m so scared!” Jun picked up a tee shirt lying next to her and threw it at her brother’s head. He giggled and ducked.

“I could totally take Ken,” he declared as he fixed his goggles.

The girl stuck out her tongue at him and made a face. “TMI, midget.”

He blinked. “Huh?”

“Too much information.” She stood up and stretched. “Well, I gotta go get ready for tonight.”

“What’s tonight?”

Jun grinned and reached down to ruffle her brother’s hair. “Matt’s playing at the club in Tamachi.”

This time Daisuke made a face at her. “Give it up already! With all the girls throwing themselves at his feet, why would he pick you?”

She raised her fist and took a step towards him menacingly. “Watch it, toad. Besides . . .” she suddenly smiled, “hope is a thing with feathers.”

Daisuke grinned. “No it’s not. Hope is a flying orange batpig.”

“ . . . Sometimes you are _so weird_ , Daisuke . . .”

He laughed at her and got up and stretched.

Jun headed towards the door as Daisuke fiddled with his radio. She suddenly stopped and turned around, a finger tapping on her cheek as though she had just remembered something. “Oh! That Hikari girl called again.”

Daisuke waved a hand and put the music back on. “I’ll call her back whenever.”

  


**  
**  
**  
\- = = = = O = = = = -**  



	3. Le Dieu, la Bête Noir

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Winner of Nemesi's DaiKen contest; Daisuke breaks the Kaiser. . . . Sorta.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * * *

**  
\- = = = = O = = = = -**

**“A sense of ocean and old trees  
Envelopes and allures him;  
Tradition, touching all he sees,  
Beguiles and reassures him;  
And all her doubts of what his says  
Are dimmed with what she knows of days–  
Till even prejudice delays  
And fades, and she secures him.”**

**= = = = = = = = =**

**Movement Three  
~ Le Dieu, la Bête Noir ~**

**\- = = = = O = = = = -  
**

  
_“W_ ell, have you seen him lately?” 

Hikari frowned at Takeru and shook her head. “He hasn’t even been coming to watch me at cheerleading practice.”

The blond scowled slightly at the mention of his friend’s apparent obsession with the Child of Light. She and TK weren’t an item in the exact definition of the term, but they had an understanding–an understanding that everyone except Daisuke seemed to get.

Jyou sighed and pushed his glasses up on his nose. “That’s weird.”

The three of them were sitting in the computer lab waiting for Iori and Miyako to arrive. Gatomon and Patamon were with Poromon and Upamon “keeping an eye on the young ‘uns.” Daisuke, as had become strangely more common over the few past weeks, was nowhere to be found.

Hikari flicked an unseen lock of hair from her eyes. “I know.” For some reason Daisuke’s sudden lack of attention regarding her was irritating. What else could have caught his eye? And why on earth did the possibility gall her? “He’s never done this before. Ever since the term before last he’s always come to see me practice. And he’s never _not returned_ my phone calls . . .”

Takeru frowned at her. “And you actually want him to?”

The girl blushed bright red and looked down, apparently suddenly finding her shoes to be extremely fascinating. “I didn’t mean that. All I meant was that he’s been acting odd lately–distracted.”

“I don’t see how you can tell the difference,” Takeru muttered moodily. He crossed his arms and turned around to stare out the window. “He’s _always_ distracted.”

“But it’s different now,” Hikari protested. “It’s like he’s distracted by–”

She stopped and blushed brilliant crimson again and Takeru scowled thunder.

Jyou watched them both over the thin silver rims of his glasses and smiled a small knowing smile. “Well, there’s no reason to get upset over it. Daisuke is quite capable of taking care of himself. And he always has his D-Terminal if he needs us.”

Takeru made a noncommittal noise in back of his throat and Hikari fidgeted. After a moment of tension, Jyou stood up and picked up his bag. “Hikari, I want to see the others, but Shin is going to pick me up soon and I promised I’d bring Gomamon some chocolates. Can you take me to the Digital World a bit ahead of the others? I’ll never hear the end of it if I keep oniisan waiting.”

The girl nodded and turned to Takeru. “You mind waiting here by yourself, TK?”

The blond shook his head.

Still blushing, Hikari turned back to the computer and raised her digivice as Jyou grabbed his bags and came to stand behind her. “Digiport open!”

There was an intense flash of light and the strange feeling of wind blowing underneath their skin and the two suddenly found themselves rather unceremoniously dumped onto the lush grass of the Digital World.

They were in one of the thousands of generic cookie-cutter meadows in the Digital World with thick forests on all sides and a small prerequisite river babbling to itself somewhere in the trees. The television sitting on the grass was a familiar and comforting sight, no longer jarring in its incongruity.

Hikari stood up and dusted herself off with practiced ease, not the least bit disturbed concerned with her rough treatment.

Jyou on the other hand, groaned as he stood up and pulled a leaf out of his hair. “I’ll never get used to that,” he muttered.

His companion was adjusting her hair clips. “Where’s Gomamon supposed to meet you at?”

“Actually, I just wanted to talk to you.”

The girl blinked in confusion as Jyou took off his glasses and began cleaning them. “You do know what you were doing back there, didn’t you?”

Hikari blushed again. “I don’t under–”

Jyou looked up at her and smiled. “You don’t have to make him jealous, Hikari. You’re all that TK’s been able to look at since he was eight.”

She blushed and stammered some more and Jyou waved her away before she could deny his words. “Go talk to him,” the blue haired teen said, still smiling. “It’s not nice to do things like that. Especially since he and Daisuke are friends.”

“But . . .”

He looked at her curiously and she dropped her head. “I . . . guess you’re right. Sorry.”

The blue-haired teen shrugged and held his glasses up to the sunlight, peering through the crystal clear lenses critically. “I’m not the one you need to be saying that to.”

“But is it really okay to leave you here alone? I mean, the Kaiser's been so quiet lately and he hasn’t been recovering territory as fast as he used to . . . Koushiro thinks that he’s up to something big. I can just talk to TK in private after Iori and Miyako arrive with the digimon.”

“Miyako and private are not exactly synonymous.” Jyou chuckled softly and put his glasses back on.

“But–”

“I’ll be fine Hikari. There’s not a Control Spire around for kilometers. Besides, Gomamon’s on his way.”

The girls smile and hugged him. “Thanks Jyou. I owe you.” She turned back to the ‘Port and vanished a few seconds later.

Jyou sighed and took off his glasses to clean of an imaginary speck of dust. Maybe he should study . . . he had a test next Tuesday and Gomamon wouldn’t be here for a while yet and–

“Jyou!!!!”

The Child of Faith frowned and put his glasses back on again. His eyes narrowed with worry. “Gomamon?”

A small whitish figure was running towards him through the low even grass, his clawed flipper-like feet making him awkward and ungainly on the land. Jyou allowed his bags to slide off his shoulder before running to lift the small creature up in his arms. Gomamon closed his large blue eyes in exhaustion and leaned his head against his human’s shoulder.

“Jyou . . .”

“What happened?” the teen murmured as he stroked the digimon’s stripe of wild orange hair.

Gomamon pulled back up and frowned. “Daisuke’s here. And I think he’s in trouble.”

“Here?” The human blinked owlishly behind his glasses. “But he didn’t show up on the D-Terminal and–”

“There’ve been rumors about the Digimon Kaiser meeting with a human lately, so I wanted to see if it was true.” The rookie shivered a bit at the mention of the Kaiser’s name. “I saw them last night in the woods together with Flamedramon and another digimon. And now Daisuke and Flamedramon are back.”

Jyou felt himself go cold. “Where?”

A flipper waved back the way Gomamon had come. “There’s another valley just like this one through the trees back there.”

“Can you take me to them?”

“Shouldn’t we tell the others?”

The teen shook his head. “No . . . no. I need to see this for myself first.”  
 ****

  
= = = = = = = = =  


  
Flamedramon frowned at the sky. “Do you think he’ll come?” 

Dai shrugged and swung his arms jauntily as he walked through the field. “He’ll come. He always comes when I’m alone.”

“They’re twenty minutes late . . .” Flamedramon rolled his shoulders uncomfortably. “They’re never late. Something’s not right about all this.”

Daisuke stopped abruptly and turned. His smile faded and a slight frown appeared on his lips as his eyes flickered over the digimon’s shoulder.

Flamedramon stopped and stiffened slightly. “What is it?”

“He’s coming.”

The Armor type turned and his dark eyes narrowed in his mask at what he saw. A long serpentine shape was coming towards them in the sky at a high rate of speed. It was an Airdramon. An Airdramon with the small figure of a human boy carefully balanced on its head. Ken had never brought an Airdramon with him after that first night. A large dark shape was flying just above it–Stingmon.

The two stood still in the middle of the field as the two digimon and their human came closer. When they were close enough, Daisuke could Ken’s cape snapped around him dramatically from his perch on the ringed digimon’s head. This . . . wasn’t right.

Stingmon was the first to land, his large frame hitting the ground harder than usual. He stood and stared down at Daisuke intently without greeting them. Daisuke swallowed hard. Ken leapt off the Airdramon head and landed on the ground a bit in front of his digimon with all his usual grace and aplomb. But somehow it looked so terribly, terribly wrong. Hard violet eyes bore into Daisuke from behind a new pair of purple lenses and the Kaiser smiled a small cold smile that made the other boy’s skin crawl.

“Good afternoon. Daisuke.”

Daisuke took a step towards him and then stopped. He had never ever been afraid of Ken until that moment. No matter what happened, there had never been fear. Until now.

Something was wrong. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but he could feel it under his skin. The Airdramon that Ken had rode in on settled down nearby and stared blankly at nothing. Ken had never brought a slave out before. Daisuke hated to see them ringed and would argue until Ken released it. The air was still and dry and the sunlight looked like something solid. Stingmon was standing a bit too tall, a bit too stiffly. And Ken–his Ken–didn’t look like Ken. He looked like a Kaiser.

Flamedramon shifted uneasily and eyed the digimon standing across from them warily and moved closer to his boy. Stingmon’s face was incapable of betraying his emotions, but the Champion’s smell was all wrong and even though he looked as stern and impassive as usual there was something in his posture that simply wasn’t natural.

Daisuke moved his head from side to side warily and shuffled his feet. “Ken-chan . . .?”

The Kaiser’s expression hardened as he stared at the Child of Courage and Friendship. “Go,” he ordered in a cold voice.

Daisuke started as the Airdramon suddenly lifted up and flew off to the east. The brunet pulled slightly back from the other boy advanced on him and Flamedramon settled back, ready to leap between Daisuke and the Kaiser should the need arise. He couldn’t just out and out attack Ken, but the sheer wrongness of this situation was enough to make his scales stand on end. Stingmon didn’t move.

Ken stopped about a foot from Daisuke and leaned forward at the waist so that their noses were almost touching. Daisuke shivered. He could taste Ken’s breath as it brushed his lips.

“You,” the child Emperor murmured, “are _so_ fucking **_stupid_**.”

Daisuke’s mouth dropped open and suddenly he heard a loud “ _crack!_ ” and the left side of his face _hurt_. He fell down to the ground and lay stunned for a moment. He blinked at the green grass and some part of him wondered how the grass could look so green on a day like this.

_He hit me._ It was a sluggish thought, surreal and horribly new as though it were someone else’s.

Flamedramon cried out when the Kaiser struck Daisuke and lunged forward, only to be knocked to the side by Stingmon. The Armor digimon slammed into a tree with a groan and slumped down. When his gaze cleared he saw Stingmon standing over him. One of the long rose-colored blades he usually kept concealed in his arm shield was now pressed lightly against Flamedramon’s throat.

Flamedramon growled, rage and betrayal making the sound stick in the back of his throat. “You spineless coward,” he hissed. His voice was thick with pain and disappointment. It was the disappointment that would cut Stingmon deepest.

The forest green digimon didn’t waver. “I’m so sorry, Flamedramon.”

Flamedramon snarled and leaned forward, straining against the blade at his throat. A small line of blood appeared as the blade punctured his skin. His eyes darted towards Daisuke almost frantically and Stingmon pulled his arm slightly back.

The Kaiser looked up to the two digimon. “Kill him!”

Stingmon’s blade trembled slightly at Flamedramon’s throat.

“Ken, no!!!” Daisuke jerked up, but was knocked back to the ground by a second blow.

“You’re next,” the pale boy spat. His voice cracked a bit at the end and Daisuke suddenly noticed that Ken’s hands were shaking. In fact his entire body was shaking, tiny tremors moving through his limbs and making him look unsteady and ready to fly apart at the seams.

_Ken . . ._ Daisuke swallowed hard. _What’s happening to you?_

The Kaiser’s face hardened as he stared down at Daisuke. This was not supposed to be hard. He had killed hundreds of digimon indiscriminately. He had seen people . . . too many people . . . die in front of his eyes. Because he had caused their deaths. Why should Daisuke be different? Why did this hurt so much?

He raised his whip, preparing to strike Daisuke a third time, and stopped when the boy didn’t move. His eyes flickered to the digimon and he noticed that Flamedramon hadn’t moved either. Why wouldn’t they fight? His gaze returned to Daisuke and his upraised hand began to shake violently, spreading until he thought he was going to fall over. He couldn’t make himself stop and Daisuke’s beautiful brown eyes tore at him painfully.

The boy’s expression was not what the Kaiser was expecting. There was no fear, no hate, not even any anger . . . Merely this deep, deep well of hurt that took the wild-haired despot by surprise. That look . . . the intensity of that pain . . . was not something that Daisuke should ever have to bear.

His upraised hand fell to his side heavily. Weak. He was so damn weak.

Daisuke’s eyes seemed to be tearing right through his skin and he felt exposed. He looked so tiny down there like that. “Why are you doing this, Ken?”

The Kaiser grit his teeth and clenched his fists until they hurt. “Shut up. I told you, Daisuke. I warned you,” he snapped, sounding almost hysterical. “You’re _nothing_ to me but a toy to use and destroy as I please.”

Tears slid down the other boy’s cheeks and he shook his head vehemently. If anything, the hurt in those eyes had only intensified and Ken felt like something inside him was cracking. This shouldn’t feel this wrong. Frantic to do something other than stare into Daisuke’s bleeding eyes, Ken leveled a glare at his partner who was standing over the fallen Flamedramon. “Damnit, Stingmon, are you just going to stand there?! Finish it!”

The digimon turned to look at him and for an instant before looking back down at Flamedramon. The blue-skinned armor type stared up at him, rage and sorrow making his eyes appear to glow. “Well?” he snapped. “You heard your master–get on with it.”

Daisuke reached out for him. “Ken-chan–”

“Shut up!” The Kaiser whirled around, his pale face a mask of fury, and his whip impacted with a sharp crack on the ground next to the smaller boy. “Just shut up! Why can’t you let me be?!”

The dark-skinned boy recoiled, his large eyes going round with shock. The Kaiser tore the glasses off his face and threw them at him, hitting him in the chest. Ken’s eyes were wild and had a confused and panicky look around them. Daisuke reached out for him again, but Ken jerked back as though he were a snake.

“You’re all I think about!” the pale boy screamed suddenly, his tenuous control evaporating. Daisuke flinched. “I can’t sleep, I can’t work, I can’t even breath without thinking of you! You torture me constantly and I can’t take you because you’d be miserable here with me and I can’t just leave you alone because I can barely breath when you’re not near me and _it hurts so much_!!! You are _killing_ me, Daisuke!”

“I . . . Ken–”

Ken stared at him for a moment, his face somehow exposed and naked without his glasses. “And I hate you!” he whispered.

Daisuke’s breath caught in his throat and he felt like he was choking on it for a moment. He trembled as those words hung in the air and saw Stingmon stand up suddenly and turn to his human. Those three sharply whispered words: _“I hate you!”_ It felt like something inside him burst.

Tears welled up in Daisuke’s eyes and he suddenly threw himself at Ken, his strong arms wrapping themselves around the Kaiser’s narrow waist as he knelt on the ground and began to sob into the other boy’s side.

Ken tried to push him away. “Get off me! Get off me, you filth!”

“I’m sorry!” Daisuke held on tight and winced as frantic blows rained down on his shoulders and arms. Tears streamed down his face and lost themselves in the smooth fabric of Ken’s uniform. “I’m sorry, Ken. Don’t hate me. Please don’t hate me! I love you so much!”

“No! Get off me!” The Kaiser shoved Daisuke back so hard that they both fell to the ground and Ken let out a shriek of pain as his arm twisted underneath him.

“Master!”

Ken’s head snapped up. “For the love of _God_ , Stingmon finish him!”

The digimon hesitated for an instant, torn between the look on his boy’s face and the order. He had to obey the Kaiser. He had to protect Ken. But obeying the Kaiser would be hurting Ken . . . Which one was more important: his boy or his master? He couldn’t decide.

_“Fire Rocket!!”_

Stingmon knew that the attack was coming before he heard Flamedramon’s cry, but somehow all he could feel was a sense of immense relief as a wall of heat slammed into him. Ken cried out as the Champion slammed into a tree hard, knocking leaves and acorns to the ground. Stingmon looked up at Flamedramon and smiled behind his mask as the blue Armor type loomed over him. Tears were sliding down the front of Flamedramon’s helmet as he stared at him and Ken’s increasingly desperate orders sounded fuzzy and distant.

Stingmon sighed and relaxed, leaving his chest wide open. “Do it,” he muttered.

Flamedramon stiffened. “What? Fight me!”

“No.”

The Armor type raised his gauntlets menacingly. “You’ll dedigivolve if I hit you like that again! Fight me! Or are you really a coward?!”

Stingmon could see Ken getting up and Daisuke was also scrambling to his feet. “I’ll beat you, Flamedramon,” he said too softly to be heard. “Do it now. If I dedigivolve, Ken-chan won’t be able to make me digivolve again. He won’t be able to make me fight you or hurt Daisuke. Or make me help him hurt himself.”

The smaller digimon lowered his hand slightly. “Then just _tell him **no**_ , Stingmon.” It was a plea.

Stingmon smiled again, a hidden expression, and shook his head slowly. He wished that he could cry. “I can’t.”

Flamedramon growled in fury and raised his hands. Stingmon relaxed. It would be best that he stay in his rookie form. Neither he nor Ken-chan were ready for the Champion level. This had all been a mistake. He heard Ken scream his name and wondered why the boy sounded so frightened.

_“Fi–”_

“That’s enough.”

The new voice made everyone freeze and Flamedramon whirled around, startled. He heard Daisuke let out a low groan that sounded close to pain. They both knew that voice.

Jyou stepped out of the forest and began to stalk towards the two boys, his pale face strained and unnatural. He had obviously been running because his cheeks were flushed and his normally smooth hair was sweaty and looked almost as though it had been spiked. Gomamon hopped out behind him.

“Stop it now,” the teen ordered in a strangely strong voice.

Ken’s pushed himself to his feet and whirled around to face the newcomer, his hand grasping his whip tightly. “You stay out–”

He choked off and his eyes widened at the sight in front of him. The light hit Jyou’s glasses and turned the lenses a painful white color, hiding his eyes. That hair . . . that harsh unforgiving expression . . . It couldn’t be. It just couldn’t possibly . . .

The whip slid from the Kaiser's hand and he took a slow unsteady step forward, his eyes looking almost unnaturally large and his thin lips parted slightly in amazement. He extended a shaking hand toward the teenager as though it could cross the distance between them. His voice was an inaudible whisper. “Oniisan . . .?”

Jyou took three steps forward and backhanded the Kaiser with a startling amount of strength. The blow lifted Ken’s fragile frame off the ground for a split second before he was sent tumbling to the ground. He laid there for a moment, stunned, an anguished look twisting his features painfully.

Daisuke stared in horrified amazement as the normally placid Digidestined towered over the fallen boy, casting a long dark shadow over Ken. “Do not ever,” Jyou said in a quiet voice, “ _ever_ hurt my friends.”

The Kaiser flinched and he turned away from Jyou to look at Daisuke. The look in his eyes tore at Daisuke’s heart. Jyou followed the stricken Kaiser’s gaze and stared at Dai for an instant. The look in his eyes softened to confusion and something that was close to pity.

It was too much.

Daisuke lurched to his feet and ran. He could hear Flamedramon and Jyou calling after him, but he didn’t stop. He didn’t even stop when Flamedramon appeared at his side, both of them running towards the Digiport. All he knew was that his head ached and he felt sick and dirty inside. He felt like a fool.

The Digiport swallowed the two of them in a flash of light.  
 ****

  
= = = = = = = = =  


  
Ken tried to call out to Daisuke as the boy fled, but the words got lost somewhere in the back of his throat. He closed his eyes and looked back up at the boy who stood over him. Kido Jyou. Kido Jyou, not Osamu. Never Osamu. 

The digimon at the teen’s feet glared at the Kaiser from behind his human’s legs.

Ken stared at Jyou in an attempt at defiance. In an attempt to salvage some of what he had lost. “Aren’t you going to hit me again?” he hissed, his grief sounding like rage.

Jyou stared down into his eyes for a long moment and his expression softened to one of pity. “Don’t you get hurt sometimes if we don’t hit you?”

The Kaiser swallowed hard and looked away. He closed his eyes so that he didn’t have to see when the two of them walked away.

When he could no longer hear their footfalls in the forest, he pushed himself up and staggered over to where his glasses and whip lay. His face throbbed furiously.

Stingmon approached him cautiously, watching his master in concern as the boy picked up his glasses with trembling hands. “Master?” The boy didn’t look up and the insect stared down at him. “Master? Is this not what you wanted . . . Ken-chan?”

The child Emperor looked up and his eyes looked vague and unfocused. “Stingmon . . .”

The Kaiser swayed dangerously and his digimon quickly dropped down and put a supportive hand on the boy’s back, holding him. Ken immediately wilted in against his hand. “Ken-chan, you should rest. You’re–”

“Stingmon . . .” The boy looked up at him and looked so small at that instant, so much like the lonely little boy that he had been all those years ago, that the Champion’s chest tightened uncomfortably and he froze. A single drop of clear saline fluid slipped out of the corner of Ken’s unhidden eyes. “I think . . . I think . . . I’ve done something wrong.”

The digimon sighed and scooped the frail-looking human up in his arms and cradled him close to his armored chest like an infant. Ken offered him no resistance and leaned into his chest plate and cried silently. “Why . . .” he murmured faintly, “why does this hurt so much . . .? Why did it hurt so much to see that look in his eyes? Why was it different? Why is _he_ different?”

Stingmon allowed his wings to slide out of their thick casing and he stretched them a minute before lifting himself up off the ground. He turned towards where they had left the base. The child in his arms shivered as they picked up speed and the wind bit at his delicate skin through the torn material of his uniform. “Why?” he whispered again in a slurred and unsteady voice.

The digimon held him a bit closer and smiled beneath his facial armor. “Because you’re in love with him, little Kaiser.”

When there was no response the virus type looked down at the boy in his arms. He was asleep.

**  
\- = = = = O = = = = -  
**


	4. In Reference to Tomorrow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Winner of Nemesi's DaiKen contest; Daisuke breaks the Kaiser. . . . Sorta.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * * *

**  
\- = = = = O = = = = -**

**“The falling leaf inaugurates  
The reign of her confusion:  
The pounding wave reverberates  
The dirge of her illusion;  
And home, where passion lived and died,  
Becomes a place where she can hide,  
While all the town and harbor side  
Vibrate with her seclusion.”**

**= = = = = = = = =**

**Movement Four  
~ In Reference to Tomorrow ~**

**\- = = = = O = = = = -  
**

  
_E_ verything was blurry. He knew that Jyou had come out of the ‘Port right behind him and he had seen the others in the room, but somehow his body had decided to do things its own way and he had just kept running past them and out of the school. He ran until a sharp pain in his side made him stumble and fall down. It was only then that he realized he was crying and once he knew that, it just seemed to get worse until he couldn’t even move. Moving hurt too much. 

Why had Ken done that? Why had he looked so . . . alone? It was getting really hard to think straight.

His head ached and he realized with a chill that he had left Demiveemon in the computer lab. The goggle boy pushed himself up, sniffling, and turned around to retrace his steps. He didn’t want to face the others–to face Jyou–but he couldn’t leave Veemon behind. They were partners.

He turned and began to trudge back towards the school. His head hurt and his face was throbbing madly where Ken had hit him. Ken . . . Tears slid down his cheeks and he wondered if he would ever be able to make them stop. Ken had not only tried to hurt him, he had tried to _kill_ him. To actually kill him. The sheer wrongness of the situation made it hard for his brain to understand it.

Ken had tried to kill him.

Ken had tried to kill him.

Ken had tried to kill him.

It shouldn’t be that hard to understand . . .

But Ken _loved_ him. . . . Didn’t he?

_“You’re all I think about! I can’t sleep, I can’t work, I can’t even breath without thinking of you! You torture me constantly and I can’t take you because you’d be miserable here with me and I can’t just leave you alone because I can barely breath when you’re not near me and_ it hurts so much _!!! You are_ killing _me, Daisuke!”_

Daisuke stopped walking and leaned back against a tree and buried his face in his hands. Sobs shook his body. Ken had tried to kill him. Ken had tried to kill him because that was the only way he could kill himself. He didn’t know how he knew that, but he did, and all he could think of was the way Ken’s body kept shaking and that gentle expression that he would get in his eyes only when he looked at Daisuke. Because he loved Daisuke.

Sometimes thinking of Ken made his teeth ache.

A car horn beeped suddenly and Dai jumped and looked up. His face was red and his eyes felt grainy.

A blue car had pulled up to the curb next to him and a young man with short blue hair and glasses was sitting behind the wheel watching him with interest. Jyou was sitting next to him in the passenger’s seat with a small and dejected looking Demiveemon in his lap.

The blue-haired teen rolled down the window and stuck his head out. “Get in. We’ll take you home.”

Daisuke nodded miserably and walked over to the driver’s side. He pulled the door open and collapsed into the seat, nearly smacking his head on the roof of the car as he did so.

Jyou twisted around and handed him his book bag and then passed him Demiveemon. “This is my brother, Shin,” he said with a wave at the driver as he turned around and put his seatbelt back on. “He was going to come pick me up anyway. It’s a good thing he was actually early this time.”

Shin shot his brother a playful glare and then looked up at Daisuke in the rearview mirror. “Hey. Ototochan’s told me a lot about you, Daisuke.”

Daisuke grunted and hugged Demiveemon close to him. “Sorry,” he whispered to the top of the creature’s little blue head. Demiveemon nodded and the boy realized that he was crying.

Shin started the car silently and slowly pulled away from the curb.

“Thank you,” Daisuke said.

Shin and Jyou both nodded.

“Hey, Jyou?”

The teen didn’t turn around. “Yah?”

Daisuke licked his lips nervously. “Jyou . . . How much did you hear?”

“I heard it all,” he responded simply. “I saw it all.”

“Did you . . .?”

Shin took a right turn at the corner and Jyou twisted in his seat so that he could look at Daisuke. He pushed his glasses back up on his nose. “I didn’t tell the others. I just lied and said that you and Kaiser got in a fist fight and you lost and were upset.” Daisuke flushed red beneath the bruise on his face as Jyou continued. “We need to talk though.”

Daisuke stared down at his tennis shoes. “What do you want me to say?”

Jyou’s forehead wrinkled as he thought for a moment. “I don’t know. I don’t know what to think about any of this. We knew you were acting weird, but we never thought–”

“Please don’t tell the others! They’ll hate me! And it wasn’t anything like they’ll all think!” Jyou pulled back slightly as Daisuke reached up to grip his shoulder. “Please! It isn’t any of their business.”

Jyou blinked owlishly behind his glasses for a moment and then sighed. “On two conditions.”

Daisuke swallowed hard.

Jyou tugged his shoulder free and turned back around. “One: you’ll meet me at the café near the Subway stop tomorrow and, two: you promise not to go back to the Digital World until after you’ve told me _everything_.”

Daisuke shot Shin a startled look at the mention of the Digital World, but the young man appeared to be enthralled by the red light they had just reached.

Seeing the boy’s gaze shift, Jyou shrugged. “He knows.”

“Oh . . .”

“So what’s it going to be?” The younger Kido turned back around and Daisuke shrank back slightly at the sudden hardness in his eyes. “I don’t like being in this position, but I know you’re not as stupid as you act sometimes, so I’m assuming there’s a reason for what you’ve been doing. And I don’t want you or any of the others getting hurt until I know what that reason is. Don’t get me wrong, Daisuke: I’m not real happy with you and I don’t like keeping things from the others. But I trust you and I know that you would never intentionally do anything to endanger them. So how about it? Do we have a deal?”

The light turned green.

Daisuke nodded. “Thanks,” he whispered.

Jyou turned around. “I’m not doing this for you. I’m doing it for everyone. This could hurt everyone, even split up the team. There’s no way you guys can win like that.”

“This wasn’t about the team,” Daisuke murmured.

“Do you think that they’ll understand that?”

They finished the ride to Daisuke’s house in silence.  
 ****

  
= = = = = = = = =  


  
Jun ran a hand back through her hair as she poured over the latest issue of _New Teen Scream Magazine_ hunting for pictures from the last Teenage Wolves concert. It was a meaningless gesture–both Motomiya children had inherited their father’s completely unmanageable brown moptop–but she did it anyway. Sometimes she envied those girls with long flowing hair like Daisuke’s friend Miyako. They were always twirling it around their fingers and squeaking on and on about something useless. Jun could not twirl her hair around her fingers, so she ran her hands through it instead. 

Besides, twirling just made a girl look like an airhead.

“Ishida Jun . . . Motomiya Yamato . . . Oh, I like that!” The eldest Motomiya giggled as she found a good picture of tow-headed lead singer to cut out. She cut the paper carefully and then suddenly hesitated when she reached Matt’s hair.

The scissors slid out of her hands, tearing the photo of Matt in half. The girl stared at the torn picture silently for a moment before quietly closing the magazine and putting it on her desk. She’d finish later. Maybe.

Jun shook her head and scowled. “No point in getting depressed, Motomiya,” she chided herself. “Crying never fixed anything.”

Her words sounded small and forced in the silence of her room and she pulled a Hong Kong Knife CD from her bookshelf. Moments later “Love Me” was blasting out of the small, over-worked speakers of her mini boom box.

She pulled out her history book and sat down in the large green armchair that occupied one corner of her room. History was her favorite subject and she needed a distraction right now.

Halfway through the collapse of the Teraichi Masatake cabinet, a timid knock on her door interrupted her. She sighed and turned the page. “Come in, brat!”

Daisuke pushed the door open and stuck his head in. “Mom’s going to the store. Do you want anything?”

The girl didn’t look up. “Tell her I’m outta hairspray, pink fingernail polish, that American lipstick she got me last time, I need two rolls of tape, three magazines–she knows which ones–and that you ate all the chocolate and strawberry pocky sticks.”

“Okay.”

Jun looked up at the soft sound of his voice. Daisuke never spoke softly unless he was very upset. She couldn’t even count the times that that snotty Hikari girl had upset him so much that he wouldn’t talk for hours. She wasn’t fond of Hikari.

“Get back here, squirt,” she ordered as Daisuke started to close the door.

He opened the door again and entered the room, keeping his head down and not meeting her eyes. The door closed behind him with a soft click.

Jun frowned darkly and closed her book. “What happened?”

Daisuke slumped down on floor next to her bed and shrugged noncommittally. His brown eyes stayed locked on her sunshine yellow comforter.

“Daisuke . . .” It was a warning.

“Nothing,” the boy muttered, shifting uncomfortably beneath her gaze.

“Riiiiiight,” she drawled. “You’re a terrible liar, runt. Now tell me what’s wrong or I’ll take all your dirty socks and underwear out of the laundry and stuff them in your pillow case again.”

It was not an idle threat. The first time she had done that, Daisuke had given up on ever getting the smell out and just bought another pillow.

Her brother smiled and looked up. She scowled when she saw a dark bruises on his cheek. “Were you fighting with the boys on the baseball team again, Dai?”

He shook his head and his smile crumbled a little as tears began to slide down his cheeks.

Jun stared for a moment. Sure, Daisuke cried. In fact sometimes he cried a lot. But he never ever did it in front of other people. Ever.

“Dais–”

The boy suddenly threw himself into her arms and started to sob. “Ken and I had a fight!” he wailed into her shoulder.

The elder Motomiya wrapped her arms around her brother gently and stroked his hair. “About what?”

Daisuke shook his head and she held him for several minutes until he cried himself out.

“Dai . . .?” He trembled in her arms. “What happened? Why did he hit you?”

“I don’t know,” he whispered miserably.

Jun’s mouth tightened. Maybe she’d have to sit down with this Ken kid after all . . .

“I think . . . I think I hurt him somehow.”

She ran her long fingers through his hair and rubbed his back soothingly. “Why do you think that, Dai? Did you say something to him to hurt him?”

The boy shook his head. “I think I scared him.”

“How?”

“I dunno. I made him feel something I guess . . .”

Jun blinked in confusion, feeling lost. “Feel? Everybody feels something, Dai. Why would he get upset because–”

Daisuke pulled away from her. “Because he loves me.”

She laughed at the earnest look on his face. “Midget . . . You’re just a kid. You don’t know what love is.”

He turned around, a hurt look on his face. He looked so different like that: bruised and tearstained, earnest and hurt. It was so completely different from his loud boisterous nature. She had never seen her brother like that and somehow felt guilty for not knowing this part of him.

“Have you ever been in love, Jun?”

Her smile drooped a little. “I . . . of course not. But–”

His eyes narrowed angrily. “Then just how the hell would you know?”

She stiffened and felt like she had been struck.

Before she could reply, the boy stormed out of her room, slamming the door behind him. The after wind of the door made the magazine flip open and Ishida Yamato’s torn glossy picture stared up at the ceiling, a perfect smile fixed on his two dimensional lips. Jun’s eyes flickered to the photo and then to the door through which her brother had vanished.

She didn’t follow him.  
 ****

  
= = = = = = = = =  


  
Ken sat slouched in his throne, his bloodshot eyes fixed on a small digital clock just below the main monitor on the wall. The red numbers made a faint clicking noise. 12:04 AM. 12:05. 12:06. 12:07. He couldn’t move. 

The only other sound in the chamber was Stingmon’s soft breathing. It was a soothing rhythm that did not change or vary. It had been his only companion since Stingmon had returned him to the base. If the Champion had not shooed the slaves out, Ken probably would have killed every last one of them when he awoke.

As it was, he attacked the first thing readily available: Stingmon. The digimon bore his master’s fury with silent dignity, the same way he bore everything else. Even though his armor shielded him from Ken’s blows, both with his whip and his fists, he had no protection from the Kaiser’s shrieks and curses and they had hurt more than any lash stoke ever could. Seeing that his attacks were having little effect, Ken then turned his wrath to the monitors, destroying most of the ones that had survived his previous temper tantrum.

Once he was too exhausted to even stand, the boy had staggered up the dais to his throne and collapsed in the seat. His hair continually fell across his face, refusing to return to its spikes, and his eyes burned horribly, but he was too drained to cry.

That had been six hours ago. Six hours of silence. Six hours that hadn’t seemed to pass at all save for the incessant clicking of the clock on its perfect sixty second cycle and Stingmon’s soft, whispery breathing.

He _hurt_. Everywhere. Everything. Swallowing, blinking, exhaling . . . every move felt like a thousand tiny needles being shoved through his skin from the inside out and his tongue felt thick and swollen in his mouth. There was a strange white noise in his ears, like a television that had lost its cable connection, and he felt hot and cold in flashes. His fingers and toes tingled.

12:08. 12:09.

The Kaiser tried to scream, but it came out as a strange gurgling noise that got caught in his throat and couldn’t seem to find its way out of his mouth. If he could have moved, he probably would have done something drastic–something terrible–but his body refused to obey him. A few tears worked their way out of his red, slightly swollen eyes. When they hit his skin, it felt like a knife was being drawn down his cheeks and he wanted to brush them aside, but simply couldn’t move his arms that far.

12:10. 12:11. 12:12.

The tears stopped as suddenly as they started and Ken’s face ached fiercely where the liquid had evaporated. He moaned, a stronger sound this time, and Stingmon rose from where he had been crouched in for the past six hours.

His muscles ached fiercely after being still for so long and he towered over his human for an instant. Long, surprisingly gently claw-like finger brushed the boy’s limp hair from his face and Ken moaned again at the sensation. It felt like someone was running a round saw blade across his skull.

“Ken-chan . . .”

The boy did not react to the sound of his name.

The digimon knelt down at his side. “Ken-chan,” he whispered urgently. “This has to stop. You have to stop this. You have to go to Daisuke and apologize and stop this right now. You cannot be the Kaiser and have Daisuke. One of you has to give and it can’t be Daisuke.”

The boy’s eyes rolled slightly back in his head and for a moment it looked like he was going to pass out. “I _can’t_ . . .” he whimpered.

Stingmon could not suppress the growl that rumbled in the center of his chest. “Ken!”

“I can’t . . .” It looked like he was going to cry then, but instead he dropped his head so that his long hair covered his face. “I can’t. I can’t,” he whispered over and over again, clinging to the words as though they were the only things to stop him from drowning in himself. “I can’t.”

The champion dropped his head so that his fore head was pressed against the crown of his master’s head. The boy’s pain was so tangible he could smell it on him. “Please, master. . .”

The child heaved a dry sob and then cried again at the pain the movement sent through him.

“I can’t.”

Stingmon wrapped his arms around the throne as though he were actually holding the child to him with the motion. He cursed his inability to cry. He cursed his inability to help his human. He cursed a universe and Guardians that could allow this rare and shockingly fragile creature to live like this. And he cursed himself for not being there when his partner’s world had shattered and for not being able to put the pieces back together.

“I can’t,” the child whispered a final time in despair.

“I know, Ken-chan.”

12:36.  
 ****

  
= = = = = = = = =  


  
The day was warm. It was the perfect kind of day to play soccer in the park or to go to Hikari’s house and pest Gatomon and Hikari and maybe to pry some cookies and stories about the original Digidestined out of Taichi. Daisuke was doing none of those things. 

Instead, the leader of the neo-Digidestined was walking down the street with a blue duffle back slung over his shoulder towards a small café. For him, it was something similar to walking out to meet a firing squad.

Demiveemon twitched and wiggled around in the duffel bag. He wished Daisuke would let him out. It was hot and he was itchy and Daisuke just hadn’t been himself since . . . yesterday.

And he missed Stingmon. The virus’s inability to defy his master had hurt Demiveemon deeply. But if their situations were reversed and it was Daisuke, wouldn’t he have done the same thing? He didn’t know.

“Daisuke!”

“Just a few more minutes, little guy.” The human’s voice sounded muffled coming from outside the thick fabric of the bag.

The in-training twisted around. “Why don’t we just go talk to K–” He stopped himself before he could say the name. Dai just couldn’t bear to hear that name right now. “I’m sure it was an accident,” the digimon continued hastily. Even he could hear the lie in his voice. “Stingmon would _never_ do anything like that and–”

“We’re almost there, so you’re gonna have to be quiet, okay bud?”

Demiveemon grumbled worriedly and settled down again. After a few more moments of swaying, the air grew noticeably warmer and the sounds of people and the smell of coffee filled the air outside the bag. There came the usual bumping as the bag was set on the floor and then after a moment he could hear Daisuke say something.

“You came.”

“Mmm.”

“I wasn’t sure if you’d come or not.”

“Sit down, Daisuke.”

“Have you told the others yet? I mean because if you have–”

Jyou didn’t say anything and Demiveemon held his breath. The others would never understand. He didn’t even understand really. All he knew was that Daisuke understood and that was more than enough for him. Hikari, TK, Miya and Iori would not be as forgiving though.

There came a clicking noise that Demiveemon recognized as a teacup being placed on polished wood. Daisuke drank a surprising amount of tea.

“No.” Jyou sounded tired. “I kept my promise. Now sit down. You have to keep yours and tell me why I shouldn’t turn you over to them.”

“But they’ll _kill_ me–”

“They’ll do no such thing. They might want to, though.”

“Please don’t tell them! I mean, I know how bad this looks, but I can explain, really I can and–”

A sigh. “Daisuke?”

“Uh . . .Yeah?”

“Stop babbling and explain. I’m not going to rat you out. Not yet at least.”

“Oh . . . I guess I should start at the beginning then?”

“Preferably.”

“Well, you remember the whole Bakemon thing, right? When Ken captured the others and made me think that he was gonna feed them to Deltamon that day after the soccer game?”

Demiveemon growled softly at the memory of being forced to humiliate his partner like that. No matter how Daisuke felt about Ken, that particular incident would always make the digimon’s skin crawl.

“Yes.”

“Well, uh, a couple of nights later I went to the Digital World with Veemon to get even and uh . . .”

“ . . . And uh what?”

“Things . . . got out of hand.”

“What do you mean, ‘got out of hand?’ ”

“I promised him I wouldn’t tell.”

For a long moment there was nothing but silence, then: “Fair enough. But can you at least give me an idea?”

“Um . . . we, uh, kinda. . . . Er, that is we . . .”

Demiveemon blushed pink at the memory.

“You didn’t . . .”

“ . . .”

“. . . Was it consensual?”

“Yes! Oh, god yes! It was–”

“I _don’t want_ details, Daisuke.”

“Sorry.”

The little digimon wiggled around, trying to find a spot where he could still hear and was more comfortable. He winced as one of his flippers got stuck in something beneath a mass of sweatshirt.

“Do you have any idea what you’ve gotten yourself into, Daisuke? Any idea at all?”

“But–but it’s not like that at all . . .”

Demiveemon grunted and jerked his arm away from the offending shirt, looking annoyed. He rubbed the pinched flipper in consternation.

“You . . . actually trust him . . .?”

“I . . . No and yes.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“It’s . . . different than that . . . better, I guess . . .”

“Daisuke . . . He tried to _KILL_ you.”

Demiveemon flinched and he somehow knew that Daisuke did the same.

“But . . . He didn’t really mean to do it. I mean, he had a reason . . .”

“And how do you know that?”

“. . . Because he _had_ to . . .”

“You do realize that he’s insane, don’t you?”

“He is not! He’s just confused and–”

“And it wouldn’t matter to you even if he is. Because you’re in love with him.”

Daisuke’s voice was a whisper. “But he loves me too.”

“Oh, Daisuke . . . What a mess this is . . .”

And then suddenly Demiveemon’s bag was picked up and he was swinging again. Jyou’s voice sounded startled. “Dai? Daisuke! Where are you going? Daisuke?”

Daisuke’s voice sounded like it normally did when he had made up his mind on something and Demiveemon’s small heart leapt at his next words. “I’m going to go see my Ken-chan.”

“I’ll tell the others.”

Daisuke stopped walking and for a moment he didn’t say anything. “Jyou . . . You’re my friend aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Then don’t tell them. This isn’t about digimon or the Digital World or the others. This is about me and Ken and me and Ken have to work this out ourselves or else . . .” He choked on the words and his voice cracked a little. “Or else I’ll never really know.”

“. . . . Then for the love of god, Daisuke-kun, be careful.”

Jyou didn’t say anything else and the air got cool really quickly, so Demiveemon knew they were outside. They walked for a few minutes and then Daisuke spoke. “Do you really think he loves me, Dems?”

Demiveemon’s small blue forehead wrinkled as he considered this. “Well, Stingmon says he does and Stingmon wouldn’t lie. So he _has_ to love you.”

“Then why . . .” He could hear Dai’s voice crack again and he wished he could climb out of the bag and comfort his partner. “Why did he try to hurt me?”

The digimon’s ears drooped. “I dunno, Daisuke.”

When the human replied, his voice was filled with resolve again. “Then let’s find out.”

Demiveemon smiled. Ken. Ken and Stingmon would explain this. They would make this all okay again; they always did. Daisuke would be back to normal in no time.

He hoped.

**  
\- = = = = O = = = = -**


	5. The Stairway to the Sea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Winner of Nemesi's DaiKen contest; Daisuke breaks the Kaiser. . . . Sorta.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * * *

**  
\- = = = = O = = = = -**

**“We tell you, tapping on our brow,  
The story as it should be,–  
As if the story of a house  
Were told, or ever could be;  
We’ll have no kindly veil between  
Her visions and those we have seen,–  
As if we guessed what hers had been  
Or what they are or would be.”**

**= = = = = = = = =**

**Movement Five  
~ The Stairway to the Sea ~**

**\- = = = = O = = = = -  
**

  
_I_ t was surprisingly easy for them to find the base and none of the ringed digimon they passed attempted to stop them. Flamedramon growled under his breath. “I don’t like this.” 

Daisuke shrugged. “He said that they wouldn’t attack us when we were alone.”

“I was talking about the base,” the digimon grumbled. “Why would he just leave it for us to find? It showed up on your D-3 and it’s never done that before. I don’t get it.”

The boy shrugged again. “Maybe he’s expecting us? Or–”

A sudden buzzing made both of them stop in their tracks as a black shadow fell over them. They both looked up and Flamedramon growled softly in warning.

Stingmon settled on the ground. “It’s my fault. He doesn’t know.”

“Why?” Flamedramon demanded, unable to keep the betrayal he felt from leaking into his voice.

“Because I think that Ken needs to talk to Daisuke.” The Champion stared directly at Flamedramon. “And I needed to talk to you.”

Flamedramon narrowed his eyes, but Daisuke stepped forward before he could speak. “Can you take me to him?”

Stingmon nodded and lifted off the ground.

“What would you have done if we had brought the others?” Flamedramon demanded suddenly. “I’m sure your Kaiser would have had a fit.”

Stingmon didn’t turn around. “It was a necessary risk.”

They didn’t talk the rest of the way to the base. Although the walk was only fifteen minutes it seemed like an eternity for Daisuke. It was necessary? Stingmon didn’t blow things out of proportion much, so if he said it was necessary, then it was necessary. Did that mean that Ken was upset? Or maybe he was sick? Daisuke’s heart clenched at the thought. He _was_ sick! That was the only explanation! He was sick and Stingmon didn’t know what to do and he was dying in there and he needed Daisuke and–Maybe he was being an idiot and jumping to conclusions.

Stingmon’s gravelly voice pulled him out of his daydream and he blinked at a huge black hill that seemed to have sprung out of the earth in front of him. “Here.” There was a large door in the hill and two bakemon were floating about aimlessly in front of the place.

“What is this?” Flamedramon demanded tersely.

Stingmon settled on the ground and walked calmly past the bakemon and tapped on something near the door. “Home,” he rumbled coolly.

The door slid open and Daisuke was reminded of an enormous mouth. Stingmon ducked inside without hesitation and after sharing a glance with his partner, Daisuke followed. Ken was here. He was sure of it.

He blinked rapidly as the door slid shut and they were plunged into a dim lighting that seemed to be barely two steps removed from darkness after the brightness of the dusty sunlight outside.

“Where’s Ken?” he asked a dark shadow he assumed to be Stingmon.

The shadow began to move ahead of them. “The control room. He hasn’t left since yesterday.”

Flamedramon snorted and muttered something rude under his breath. He didn’t like this place. The shadows moved too quickly and came too close to them for his liking.

“It’s right around the bend up here,” Stingmon said as they rounded a corner.

Daisuke nodded despite the fact that Stingmon’s back was to him. “Is he okay?”

“He’s in pain,” the Champion replied simply. “And I can’t help him.”

The three of them stopped in front of a pair of unremarkable steel doors and Stingmon touched something that Daisuke could quite see. The doors slid open smoothly.

Daisuke peered in quickly before turning back to Stingmon. The virus looked down at him and he seemed to be a bit sad. “Go on. He needs you.”

“But–”

“Flamedramon and I will be right out here the entire time your in there. Don’t worry.” Long, heavily protected fingers gently grabbed his shoulder and ushered him into the room. After casting Flamedramon a pleading glance, the boy sighed and entered the room without a word. The door closed behind him and the last thing he could see was the reddish glow of Flamedramon’s eyes.

The control room was brighter than the hallways were, but not by much. The main source of illumination seemed to come from an unseen light source that shone directly down on the throne and dais that occupied the center of the large room. Dozens of monitors seemed to be suspended in the room, many of their screens displaying only static while others were broken, their screens shattered in a fit of rage. There was glass on the floor.

The brunet walked over to the dais and throne warily. He could see a single slender arm tossed carelessly over the side and a bit of blue hair from where someone was slumped in the throne in a position that could not have possibly been comfortable.

There was a soft, light noise that it took Daisuke a moment to recognize as breathing. Carefully, the boy walked toward the center of the room where the chair was. He winced internally when he got closer to the busted monitor screens and frowned. What had Ken done?

He knelt next to the arm of the Kaiser’s throne and studied the strange boy who had somehow become such a fixed image in his life. Jagged looking lines of bitterness and stress marred the pale despot’s face in a way Daisuke had never noticed before and his breathing was light and shallow. His hair had once again fallen out of its carefully chaotic spikes and framed his face in gentle waves, making him look younger and more innocent than he really was. Daisuke felt like a criminal looking at Ken like this; he knew this was something that few people saw.

_But I’ve seen it_ , some tiny part of his mind sang. _I’ve seen it and no one else has!_

Daisuke had seen a depth in Ken that none of the Digidestined suspect and he himself would not have believed possible two months ago. It was something that he treasured, one of the tiny thoughtless things that Ken did that told Daisuke he was loved and special.

Ken’s love was not in-your-face, nor was it gentle and passive. It was an experience that pulled you into completely. You just couldn’t love Ken without loving him entirely–the good and the evil alike. He expected without demanding and rarely gave in return. Ken’s love was selfish, hungry love that could only be fed by someone equally selfless who could give and understand that what was not given was just as precious as what was. A smile was a kiss. A kiss was love. And love itself was like the instant before dying when everything is clearer and more real and more touchable than ever before.

Daisuke didn’t understand Ken’s love, but he knew that he needed it. And somehow Ken needed him. That probably scared Ken, but Daisuke was more than willing to be brave enough for them both. Motomiya Daisuke didn’t understand things in the way that most people did; he saw them with a child’s innocence and selflessness–two things that were lost in Ken’s world a long, long time ago.

A pair of blue eyes opened behind purple lenses and a shiver went through the boy kneeling on the floor.

“Ken . . .?”

The Kaiser’s thin peach colored lips parted and he stared at Daisuke. “Wh . . .”

With a shake of his head, Daisuke leaned against the Emperor’s knee. He understood this. He understood this all terribly well, but he couldn’t find the words for any of it. “It’s . . . okay . . .”

Because it really was okay. Or it would be some day at least.

Ken stood up abruptly, showing more animation than he had in nearly twenty-four hours almost knocking Daisuke off the dais. His movements were stiff and unnatural, their usual grace absent. “Get out,” he hissed as he strode over to a broken monitor. Glass crunched under his boots.

“I’m not going to leave you here like this, Ken.”

A snarl tore free from the Kaiser’s dainty lips and the pale boy whirled around, his gloved fists clenched and his back stiff. The force of his gaze bordered on a personal attack and Daisuke stood up. Something inside him rebelled at the idea of kneeling when Ken was so angry.

“Are you stupid? You know what I’m capable of. I could kill you in a breath. Get out, Motomiya!”

Daisuke shifted slightly, but held his ground. He refused to break down in front of Ken–not when Ken himself was so obviously close to losing it. “No.” He thanked every god he could think of that his voice wasn’t shaking. “I want to help you, Ken.”

“Help?” The Kaiser’s voice dropped to a cold, flat whisper. “ _You_ want to help _me_?”

Daisuke jerked back as the other boy advanced on him suddenly, but still refused to move. He breathed in Ken’s scent when the other boy stopped, their faces mere inches apart. If Dai had leaned forward just a little bit more, he could have tasted him.

“Let’s get one thing straight, _Chosen_ ,” he spat the word out as though it were foul in his mouth, “I do not need you whining, sniveling, pathetic help. I am the Kaiser here.”

Daisuke swallowed hard. “No you’re not.”

Ken jerked back and lifted his hand, casting a long dark shadow over Daisuke’s face. Daisuke’s eyes fluttered shut in expectation of a blow that never fell.

After a moment of stillness, the Child of Courage opened his eyes to see Ken staring at him with a look of intense pain on his face. The upraised hand slowly lowered and Daisuke reached up and gently slipped the child Emperor’s glasses off his face. He had learned a long time ago that he could see the boy genius’s entire being reflected in their flickering surfaces and right now those eyes were red and swollen from crying.

With infinite tenderness that few would have believed possible, Daisuke gently reached up and brushed a few strands of hair from Ken’s face.

“You’re just a scared kid who has no idea what the hell he’s doing. Just like rest of us.”

Ken shrank back from his touch as though it burned and then Daisuke’s voice really did tremble. “What are you running from, Ken?”

Ken pulled away and wrapped his arms around himself. He suddenly looked small and outlandish in his Kaiser garb and the shadows didn’t cling to him the way they had before. He looked like he didn’t belong there. For a moment he didn’t reply, but when he did finally speak his voice was a strained shriek that cut through the air and make Daisuke’s heart contract.

“Running away? I’m running away from _you_!”

And then the Digimon Kaiser began to sob silently.  
 ****

  
= = = = = = = = =  


  
Flamedramon glared at the taller digimon as Stingmon leaned against the wall outside the control room. After a moment of silence the blue digimon shrugged uncomfortably and began to study the swirling lines of code that marked the walls. He distantly wondered how Ken and Wormmon had managed to do all this. “Talk.” 

Stingmon looked at the ground. “It’s very hard for me to maintain this form.”

Flamedramon looked over at him sharply in confusion.

“It’s difficult without having your human help you sustain it,” Stingmon continued. He looked back up. “I’m not even sure on how I did it back at the lake that night. It pleases Ken, I think. He prefers this form to my old one. But holding onto it all day and all night for weeks on end . . . It’s extremely painful. Do you know why I’ve done it?”

Flamedramon’s eyes narrowed behind his helmet and he barely bit back a scathing reply. “No.”

Stingmon rested his head against the wall. “Because it makes Ken-chan happy.” He cocked his head slightly to the side. “And because it makes you notice me.”

Flamedramon frowned and opened his mouth to protest but Stingmon interrupted him with a sharp, bitter bark of laughter. “Don’t lie. I know what I am, Flamedramon. Wormmon are not really cared for by much of anyone in the Digital World. Viruses don’t like us because we’re weak and cowardly. Vaccines don’t like us because we’re clingy and stupid. Data types don’t like us because we’re useless. It’s not a good thing to be born as–a Wormmon, I mean.”

Flamedramon looked away. “That’s not true.”

Stingmon snorted. “Then why won’t you look at me when you say that? I know the truth about what I am. It’s okay. But be honest: did you even ever so much as spare me a glance in my rookie form save for when you were knocking me out of your way?”

Flamedramon stared at the ground and felt his cheeks heat beneath his mask.

“Hmph. I thought not.” Stingmon looked at the ground again and there was silence.

Flamedramon swallowed and felt slightly nauseous. “Did you notice me?”

“Everyday.”

The Armor type looked up at his companion and felt suddenly angry. “Why are you telling me this?”

“I’m going to revert tomorrow I think. Or maybe the day after.”

“What?” Flamedramon’s brow contorted and he spun to face the other digimon. “What are you talking about? Why?”

The Champion heaved a sigh that seemed to come from the very floor. “Because Ken-chan is dying. The part of him that makes it so that I can stay like this is dying inside him.” He met Flamedramon’s eyes and his antennae seemed to droop a bit. “I thought that Daisuke was going to be able to help him, but I was wrong. He just made it worse. Daisuke just kind of drug it all out and made it hurt more. I don’t know what Ken will do now, but they can’t keep this up. He knows it and Daisuke knows it. I think that it’s all over now.”

“He might get rid of you for dedigivolving,” Flamedramon whispered.

Stingmon shrugged. “He won’t. He may not know it, but he needs me. He really does love Daisuke, though.”

Flamedramon sighed and settled back next to Stingmon on the wall. “I know. Somehow I think we all knew.”

They were both quiet end listened to the faint sounds of their humans’ voices. Something crashed, but neither digimon moved. They could both sense their boys’ distress, but neither of them was in any particular danger. And they both knew that they all needed the time apart.

The dragon-like digimon cleared his throat uncomfortably. “I’m sorry I never noticed you before,” he murmured.

Stingmon nodded and made a noncommittal sound in his throat.

Flamedramon stared at the gauntlets on his wrists. They were covered with the same flame pattern that decorated Daisuke’s bomber jacket–the Fires of Courage, Daisuke had once said. That was what he called himself too: Flamedramon, the Fire of Courage. He felt like he had been anything but courageous lately. “If it means anything to you . . .” he whispered softly to the other digimon, “I notice you now.”

Stingmon turned his head to the side and looked down at the Armor type. “You know that my first duty is to my Master, don’t you?”

Flamedramon seemed to wilt for a moment, but then he looked up at the slightly taller digimon and nodded. “I understand.”

Stingmon shifted uncomfortably. “He’s really not so bad you know . . . Ken-chan, I mean. He’s just confused right now. He’ll get better. He just needs some time . . .”

He’ll get better. Like he was sick or something.

The Armor digimon shook his head and said nothing, choosing instead to listen to the silence that now pervaded the air. Their humans’ distress had faded into a kind of sweet melancholy. Stingmon was right, Flamedramon realized; it really was over. They were both quiet for a moment, then: “You really believe in him, don’t you?”

“Ken-chan is everything to me,” Stingmon replied. “He found me alone and wounded in the desert–if he and Ryo hadn’t come I would have died. He took me in, healed me; he taught me to digivolve the first time even though Ryo didn’t want him to. He taught me everything. Without him . . .” He trailed off, unwilling to speculate on a life without Ken. There simply could not _be_ a life without Ken.

The other digimon nodded absently. Suddenly he shifted back until he was leaning against the large green insect. “Well, there’s always tonight. And, in spite of everything, . . . this was . . . nice.”

A deep chuckle shook Stingmon. “Yes. Yes. This was nice.”

“Perhaps,” Flamedramon began tentatively, “perhaps, one day–”

Stingmon silenced him by wrapping his arms around the smaller digimon’s shoulder. “Perhaps,” he said.

His voice held little hope, but his embrace was surprisingly warm and comforting and Flamedramon was happy to settle for that much. They both knew that, for the moment at least, that was all that was possible.  
 ****

  
= = = = = = = = =  


  
Ken looked at Daisuke, not the Kaiser, but _Ken_. Ken whom Daisuke loved; Ken whom Daisuke needed enough to forgive the Kaiser. Ken . . . Ken who was everything. And Ken was crying. Large, sparkling crystal tears slid silently down his face and hit his uniform, turning the blue parts black and the white parts gray and his eyes looked larger somehow, wider and clearer than ever before. 

Daisuke shifted awkwardly and suddenly wished that he was smart enough to know what to say or do. He wished he knew how to fix this. To see Ken cry . . . It was unbearable.

“I _hate_ you,” the pale boy hissed meaningfully through his tears.

Daisuke flinched.

“I hate you. I hate you so much that it burns inside. I hate you for being here. I hate you for doing this to me. I hate you . . . I hate you . . .” The boy choked off and turned away.

Daisuke’s hands clenched into fists and he could feel tears stream down his own cheeks now as well. “I love you, Ken.”

“Shut up!!” The child Emperor grabbed the closest thing to him, his whip, and hurled it blindly at the other boy. Vision distorted by his tears, he threw wide and the whip hit the wall over Daisuke’s shoulder. Ken let out a wounded shriek and dropped to his knees. He covered his ears with his hands and hunched down into a ball. “Shut up, shut up shut up! You don’t! You can’t!”

Daisuke crossed the room and, oblivious to the other’s resistance, wrapped his arms around the small boy sobbing on the floor and began to rock him back and forth and whisper to him just as he had that night by the lake. “It’s okay, Ken. It’s okay. You’ll be okay. I promise. I’m here and it’s okay, Ken. Please don’t cry. Please?”

Ken stopped fighting and collapsed helplessly in his arms, shaking his head at nothing. “I hate you, ‘Suke. I hate you.”

“Ken-chan . . . Ken-chan . . .”

The two boys sat like that on the cold metal floor until their tears had stopped and their voices were cracked and worn and they felt stiff.

“Ken?”

“What, Suke?”

“Do you love me? Really, really love me?”

The slender boy’s body shook as he sighed. He closed his eyes and leaned in closer to Daisuke. “Yes, ‘Suke. I really love you.” His shoulder’s trembled and he buried his face in Daisuke’s shirt. “I love you.”

Daisuke smiled happily and it looked like winter clouds clearing after a long storm. “That’s all I wanted to hear, Ken.”

Ken nodded helplessly and Daisuke gave him a gentle squeeze and freed a hand to gently stroke his lover’s long indigo locks. “Then we can’t do this anymore, can we?”

Ken shook his head and his shoulders started to shake harder and Dai could feel his shirt getting damp.

The Child of Courage and Friendship continued to smile and stroke the other boy’s hair though and he even laughed to himself. “It’s okay,” he decided.

Ken pulled back and sat up, his pale face red and streaked with tears. “What?”

Daisuke leaned forward and gently kissed his lips. When he pulled back he was still smiling. “I said it’s okay. I won’t keep doing this and watch it hurt you.” He wrapped his arms around Ken and pulled him close, tucking the other boy’s head under his chin. “And we always have today and right now. Besides . . . I can wait. When you stop this, I’ll be there.”

The Kaiser shivered in his arms. “And what makes you think I’ll ever ‘stop this?’ ”

“I believe in you. Besides, we’re gonna win, Kaiser.”

Ken tried to laugh but it came out like a sob and he wrapped his arms around the other boy. “You’re so stupid, Daisuke.”

The goggle boy grinned. “It’s part of my charm.”

Ken closed his eyes and relaxed. “So I guess you should get home then.”

Daisuke yawned and rested his chin on Ken’s head. “Mmmm . . . I guess,” he mumbled.

Ken’s eyes fluttered sleepily. “Then I’ll see you again in battle–” he stifled a yawn, “my worthy adversary . . .”

“Uh-huh.” Daisuke lay down on the floor and pulled Ken close to him. “Bye, Ken.”

Ken wrapped his arms around his partner and allowed his eyes to slide shut. “Bye, ‘Suke.”

In the dim light the monitors hummed and beeped occasionally as another seemingly uneventful day in the Digital World rolled quietly into a seemingly uneventful night. The two boys lay peacefully in each other’s arms, unaware of the passing of time or the fading of one day into the next. As they slept their hearts beat in time.

**  
\- = = = = O = = = = -**

**“Meanwhile we do no harm; for they  
That with a god have striven,  
Not hearing much of what we say,  
Take what the god has given;  
Though like waves breaking it may be,  
Or like a changed familiar tree,  
Or like a stairway to the sea  
Where down the blind are driven.”**

**_Eros Turannos_  
~ Edwin Arlington Robinson**

**\- = = = = O = = = = -**

**~ Fin**

**===========================================================================**

**_~ Eros Turannos ~_  
Edwin Arlington Robinson  
 _  
She fears him and will always ask  
What fated her to choose him;  
She meets in his engaging mask  
All reasons to refuse him;  
But what she meets and what she fears  
Are less than are the downward years  
Drawn slowly to the foamless weirs  
Of age, were she to lose him._**

**_Between a blurred sagacity  
That once had power to sound him,  
And Love, that will not let him be  
The Judas that she found him,  
Her pride assuages her almost,  
As if it alone were the cost.–  
He sees that he will not be lost,  
And waits and looks around him._ **

**_A sense of ocean and old trees  
Envelopes and allures him;  
Tradition, touching all he sees,  
Beguiles and reassures him;  
And all her doubts of what his says  
Are dimmed with what she knows of days–  
Till even prejudice delays  
And fades, and she secures him._ **

**_The falling leaf inaugurates  
The reign of her confusion:  
The pounding wave reverberates  
The dirge of her illusion;  
And home, where passion lived and died,  
Becomes a place where she can hide,  
While all the town and harbor side  
Vibrate with her seclusion._ **

**_We tell you, tapping on our brow,  
The story as it should be,–  
As if the story of a house  
We told, or ever could be;  
We’ll have no kindly veil between  
Her visions and those we have seen,–  
As if we guessed what hers had been  
Or what they are or would be._ **

**_Meanwhile we do no harm; for they  
That with a god have striven,  
Not hearing much of what we say,  
Take what the god has given;  
Though like waves breaking it may be,  
Or like a changed familiar tree,  
Or like a stairway to the sea  
Where down the blind are driven.  
_  
\- = = = = O = = = = -  
**

  


* * *


End file.
